The government has reached out to the future US president, Donald Trump, after threats against Denmark.
This is stated by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) on Thursday evening in front of the State Ministry in Christiansborg. She is flanked by Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V).
– We have proposed a conversation between us, says the prime minister.
– We have not been rejected. But I myself only expect it to be in place when the president has started his work.
Donald Trump will do so on January 20, when he will be inaugurated as president of the United States for the second time.
He was also president from 2017 to 2021, where during his presidency he floated the idea of buying Greenland.
Donald Trump has this time threatened to use military force to gain control of Greenland, and he has threatened Denmark with economic sanctions.
Mette Frederiksen states at the press conference that “we have no reason to believe that it should develop in that way”.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who on Wednesday denied that there was a foreign policy crisis, says that you have to take it easy.
– You can take Trump seriously without taking him literally, says Løkke.
Lars Løkke elaborates that the government looks “seriously at the things that have been said”.
– But we can also easily see that there are some legitimate American interests, and we want to engage in dialogue with the Americans about them. I think we must arm ourselves with patience.
The government has been accused by several parties of being too diplomatic in its response to Trump’s outpourings.
Unlike in 2019, when Mette Frederiksen called Trump’s offer to buy Greenland “absurd”.
On Thursday evening, the party leaders from the Folketing were invited to a briefing at the Prime Minister’s Office, and Mette Frederiksen hopes that there can be a gathering in the ranks, so that the Folketing appears as a unit.
– We must stand together in Denmark, in the Danish parliament, we must in the EU, we must in NATO, and we must in the Commonwealth.
– We hope that the Danish Parliament will help ensure that the Commonwealth emerges strengthened from the situation we are in now, she says.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
