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Politics Home Article | Trump Should Stop Threatening To Annex Greenland, Starmer Agrees
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” President Trump said (Alamy)
3 min read
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has agreed with sending the message “hands off Greenland” to US President Donald Trump.
Speaking on Monday, the Prime Minister said he is “absolutely clear” that Greenland’s future is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide.
The intervention comes after Trump told reporters on Air Force One in the early hours of Monday morning: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”
Asked by a BBC reporter whether he would tell President Trump “hands off Greenland”, Starmer replied: “Yes. Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Speaking to Sky News, the Prime Minister said: “Let me be really clear about Greenland. The future for Greenland is for Greenland [and] the Kingdom of Denmark.
“Denmark is a close European ally, a close Nato ally, and the future therefore has to be for Greenland, for the Kingdom of Denmark, and only for Greenland, and the Kingdom of Denmark.
“We’re absolutely clear about that.”
Trump has shown increased interest in Greenland, currently under Danish control, over the past year.
The US President’s latest intervention followed a raid in Venezuela last week, which resulted in the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife.
On Saturday, Starmer refused to be drawn on whether Trump’s actions in Venezuela had broken international law.
PoliticsHome understands that at the time of writing, Starmer had not spoken to Trump about Venezuela. However, a conversation with the US president is expected after a ‘coalition of the willing’ meeting of European leaders about Ukraine on Tuesday.
Following the US operation in Venezuela, Trump hinted in an interview with The Atlantic that other countries could face American intervention, saying: “We do need Greenland, absolutely.”
Tensions rose over Trump’s intentions for Greenland last year when he insisted that US needed to take control of the Arctic island for security reasons.
He tried to buy Greenland during his first term in the White House, but Denmark and the government of Greenland rejected the offer at the time, saying the island was “not for sale”.
In response to Trump’s latest claims that the US “needed” Greenland for security reasons, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said: “No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.
“We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that “the US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom”.
Tensions were raised over the weekend when Katie Miller, the wife of one of Trump’s senior advisers, Stephen Miller, posted an image of a map of Greenland covered with the American flag on X, captioning the picture with “SOON”.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to deliver a House of Commons statement on the situation in Venezuela later on Tuesday.
