- The messages about Greenland is very worrying.
This is what the EU's foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, said at a press conference on Thursday during a visit to Egypt.
- We are discussing the issue with the EU countries. Whether the threats are real and what we should do, says Kaja Kallas.
Following the US intervention in Venezuela, US President Donald Trump has caused deep concern in Europe by restating the desire to gain control over Greenland.
Most recently, the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night Danish time, repeated his criticism of Denmark and Europe for not having sufficiently taken care of Greenlandic and western security.
- Greenland is crucial - not just for our national security - but for the world's national security, says Vance to Fox News.
- The entire infrastructure around missile defense is partly dependent on Greenland, the vice-president continues.
He then talks about an imagined situation where Russia or China fires a missile at Western countries.
- I'm not saying they're going to do it. But if - God forbid - someone in the future launched a nuclear missile at our continent or Europe, then Greenland is a crucial part of that missile defence, says Vance.
- So you ask yourself: Have the Europeans and the Danes done a proper job of securing Greenland and ensuring that it can be a decisive part of the world's security? The answer is that they obviously haven't.
The US decision to send special forces into Venezuela to detain the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, has caused deep concern in Europe.
The question is whether the USA will also be ready to use military or economic power to take over Greenland.
Against this gloomy background, Denmark has received support from a number of European and Nordic countries.
No later than Tuesday, when Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain in a joint statement with Denmark stated that decisions about Greenland's future should be made by Greenland and Denmark alone.
The EU Commission has also emphasized that it stands behind the international principles of maintaining the countries' territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- Denmark is a good ally for the US, and the latest announcements do not help stability in the world, says Kaja Kallas.
She states that the US, like other countries, only has the right to use military force for self-defense and to fulfill resolutions from the UN Security Council.
- The international rules are clear, and we must stick to them.
- They protect smaller countries, and it is in everyone's interest that they are maintained at all levels, says Kaja Kallas.
Greenland has close ties to the EU, but withdrew from the then EC in 1985.
It is therefore an open question what the EU can concretely do in addition to expressing support and emphasizing the international rules.
As a member of the EU, Denmark has the opportunity to invoke the special Article 42, paragraph 7.
It obliges all Member States to provide assistance by all means if a Member State is subjected to an armed attack on its territory.
The article was most recently activated by France after the terrorist attacks in 2015.
/Ritzau/
