On Wednesday evening Danish time, the US special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, reiterated that the US needs to rebuild its presence in Greenland.
This is reported by the AFP news agency.
- It is time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland, Landry says, shortly before he is scheduled to leave the country.
Last December, Landry was appointed to the newly created post of special envoy to Greenland. He is also the governor of Louisiana.
The appointment came after US President Donald Trump had repeatedly floated the idea of taking over Greenland.
During his visit, he was, among other things, criticized for whether he respects Greenland's claim to sovereignty.
To that he replied that the US only has one red line, and that is self-interest.
At the same time, he referred to the US wanting to open bases in Greenland to establish better security.
- I think you see the president talking about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland, he said on Wednesday evening Danish time.
The US currently has a single military base in Greenland. It is Pituffik Space Base, which was previously known as the Thule base.
It was Sunday evening that Landry landed at Nuuk Airport, and on Monday the visit included a meeting with the Greenlandic government leadership.
Subsequently, Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen (D) and Greenland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Múte B. Egede (IA), announced that they had a good meeting with envoys from the United States.
According to Jens-Frederik Nielsen, they had emphasized the line that the Greenlandic government has had from the beginning.
- We said that Greenland and Greenlandic society must be respected, said the Prime Minister at a press conference in Nuuk on Monday afternoon.
The US ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, has also visited various locations in Greenland during the week.
Among other things, his task is to inaugurate the new offices of the US consulate in Nuuk on Thursday. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen will not be participating, he tells the Greenlandic media Sermitsiaq.
He also attended a job fair with Landry on Tuesday and Wednesday.
/ritzau/
