The US president maintains Russia or China would take over the Danish autonomous island unless it becomes American territory
US President Donald Trump’s claims of a heavy Chinese and Russian military presence near Greenland are “an exaggeration,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson has said. Trump asserts that only US sovereignty can protect the Danish autonomous island from being taken over by Beijing or Moscow.
Trump renewed his push this month to acquire the world’s largest island, and has not ruled out using military force. European NATO members have largely avoided publicly challenging his justification, though officials have privately dismissed the claims when speaking to the press anonymously.
“If you state that Greenland is flooded with Russian and Chinese vessels, that’s an exaggeration according to the assessments that we do for the region,” Jonson told The Telegraph on Thursday in what the British newspaper called the first remark by a senior NATO figure to openly question Trump’s rhetoric. Speaking about Chinese Arctic activity specifically, he called it “limited” and “predominantly focusing on research vessels.”
The interview followed a US visit by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, after which the Europeans acknowledged a “fundamental disagreement” with Washington over the island’s security.
“It is not a true narrative that we have Chinese warships all around the place – according to our intelligence, we haven’t had a Chinese warship in Greenland for a decade or so,” Rasmussen told reporters after talks with senior US officials.
Trump has repeatedly mocked Danish defenses of Greenland, calling them “two dog sleds” incapable of repelling a real attack.
On Wednesday, Denmark announced a military exercise in Greenland involving additional troop deployments. Several European nations, including Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and the UK, have said they will participate, contributing between one and 15 troops each.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peksov called the situation “extraordinary in terms of international law” but hardly surprising, considering Trump’s public statements that he does not care about that aspect. Moscow is observing developments, he added.
