Danish PM says Trump's idea of selling Greenland to U.S. is absurd

 

FILE PHOTO: Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, July 11, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

 

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Greenland is not for sale and the idea of selling it to the United States is absurd, Denmark's prime minister said on Sunday after an economic adviser to President Donald Trump confirmed the U.S. interest in buying the world's largest island.

 

"Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the newspaper Sermitsiaq during a visit to Greenland.

 

Trump confirmed to reporters on Sunday that he had recently discussed the possibility, though he said such a move was not an immediate priority.

"The concept came up and ...strategically it's interesting," Trump told reporters from the tarmac in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to board Air Force One.

 

"It is not No.1 on the burner; I can tell you that."

 

President Donald Trump on Sunday said the concept came up about buying the world's largest island Greenland, but that it was 'not number one' on the list of priorities for his administration. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

 

Trump is due to visit Copenhagen early next month, when the Arctic will be on the agenda in meetings with Frederiksen and Prime Minister Kim Kielsen of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

 

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday initially confirmed media reports earlier in the week that Trumphad privately discussed with his advisers the idea of buying Greenland.

 

"I don't want to predict an outcome. I'm just saying the president, who knows a thing or two about buying real estate, wants to take a look at a Greenland purchase," Kudlow told Fox News.

 

Kudlow said the situation was "developing" and noted that U.S. President Harry Truman also had wanted to buy Greenland.

 

"And Denmark owns Greenland, Denmark is an ally, Greenland is a strategic place, up there. And they’ve got a lot of valuable minerals," Kudlow added.

 

A defence treaty between Denmark and the United States dating back to 1951 gives the U.S. military rights over the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.

 

Greenland, located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is dependent on Danish economic support. It handles its own domestic affairs while Copenhagen looks after defence and foreign policy.

 

"It's an absurd discussion, and Kim Kielsen has of course made it clear that Greenland is not for sale. That's where the conversation ends," Frederiksen told the Danish broadcaster DR.

 

On Friday, Greenland's foreign minister, Ane Lone Bagger, had told Reuters: "We are open for business, but we're not for sale."

 

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Kevin Liffey)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-19

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Not surprising most of what trump says and does I find absurd as well 

So surreal.

Sounds to me that dear Mr. Trump is suffering of the consequenses of the last cent just left the brain wallet.

A defence treaty between Denmark and the United States dating back to 1951 gives the U.S. military rights over the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.

 

Well that can be torn up immediately. Seeing US has no respect for treaties.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

It is not No.1 on the burner; I can tell you that."

Neither is trump if he truly believes this is anything but a ridiculous idea. 

Trump just needed a new absurd, stupid proposal to keep the chaos tank full and bubbling. It worked.

He should follow the standard US procedure:  invent a phony threat and invade

He is just spouting what a Trump spouts, it has no meaning.

It's not going to happen but it's not a bad idea for the US to acquire Greenland unless you think it was a bad idea in the long run for the US to acquire Alaska. I have no problem maintaining a deep opposition to 45 if occasionally he supports something that would be good.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Jingthing in a way I agree with you but let’s do health care and infrastructure first yes?

The bigger the impending avalanche of crap , the bigger the deflection required

 

Edited August 19, 20196 yr by Sir Swagman
Used a naughty word the hall monitor deleted.

I'm waiting for Kim Jong Un to start discussing with his generals on idea of buying Trump from US Congress... or whoever could sell him... Make North Korea Great Again...

 

But then there are some rumours that Putin already bought him...

Was the name to be changed from Greenland to New Ivanca Land?

Just more dribble from an uneducated mind. One of the hazards of never reading, and learning about the world. He is one of the most ignorant men in the world, no doubt about that, so what he says and does cannot really be dwelled upon too much. The fact that he is the president of the US, makes this a bit unfortunate. Just give this another 15 months. He will be gone, and on his way to prison. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

I'm just saying the president, who knows a thing or two about buying real estate, wants to take a look at a Greenland purchase,

Does that mean Greenland has a golf course?

Or it will have one?

Mini golf?

Likely means Trump has finally been convinced that that climate change thing is real.

52 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

Does that mean Greenland has a golf course?

Or it will have one?

Mini golf?

There are golf courses in Greenland real ones.

42 minutes ago, pegman said:

Likely means Trump has finally been convinced that that climate change thing is real.

You're absolutely right. Actually I don't think that he didn't think it was real before. His anti-science, denialist position is for political gain to fire up his base and of course help the billionaires wanting no regulations make even more obscene profits, as if his tax cuts only for them weren't enough. 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Just more dribble from an uneducated mind. One of the hazards of never reading, and learning about the world. He is one of the most ignorant men in the world, no doubt about that, so what he says and does cannot really be dwelled upon too much. The fact that he is the president of the US, makes this a bit unfortunate. Just give this another 15 months. He will be gone, and on his way to prison. 

Yeah but a stopped clock is right twice a day, no disrespect meant to stopped clocks!

It's his Greenland New Deal!

This is a good idea. Makes a lot of sense. 

Just now, Thingamabob said:

This is a good idea. Makes a lot of sense. 

I thought the idea was silly but your analysis has made me rethink my position.

Well, the comment 'Strategically' makes it sound like a wider defence oriented concept- presumably the Canada bypass to Russia is the option - Alaska left, and Greenland right. Sounds a bit 'Cold War', but that seems to be the way the hawks amongst his advisers still see the world.

I see regime change in Denmark on the way and a new friendly government picked by the US that wants to sell off Greenland to replace the old nasty regime.

58 minutes ago, pegman said:

Likely means Trump has finally been convinced that that climate change thing is real.

Or perhaps some of his donors, maybe someone with a name like Koch, who sees the melting polar icecap revealing new mineral opportunities.

Is someone doing economic models to profit from the coming climate catastrophe?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/iceland-bids-farewell-glacier-lost-climate-change-190818162956810.html

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Tug said:

Not surprising most of what trump says and does I find absurd as well 

 

5 hours ago, Tug said:

Not surprising most of what trump says and does I find absurd as well 

Maybe China will buy it. 

7 minutes ago, korkenzieher said:

Well, the comment 'Strategically' makes it sound like a wider defence oriented concept- presumably the Canada bypass to Russia is the option - Alaska left, and Greenland right. Sounds a bit 'Cold War', but that seems to be the way the hawks amongst his advisers still see the world.

Yes, I considered this, but his buddy Vlad would not approve.  That was "Highway 1" for Soviet ships getting into the Atlantic from the ports on the northern coast.

 

8 minutes ago, korkenzieher said:

Well, the comment 'Strategically' makes it sound like a wider defence oriented concept- presumably the Canada bypass to Russia is the option - Alaska left, and Greenland right. Sounds a bit 'Cold War', but that seems to be the way the hawks amongst his advisers still see the world.

Well there is already a major conflict over the ARCTIC and that's going to get much more intense with climate change. Why be naïve about that and act like that isn't already happening? Americans have an interest in being in that game going forward. As far as it happening, well extremely unlikely, but on the other hand if the price is massive and Greenland people are protected eternally from being under the U.S. system as far as things like taxation and a crappy health care system, well it's not IMPOSSIBLE either. 

23 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

This is a good idea. Makes a lot of sense. 

Well I agree it would be desirable for the USA to have especially long term. 

But there is the question of whether the "sellers" are willing and also the price.

So I don't think it will happen. 

Also the way it's been leaked is rude to the parties involved -- Denmark and Greenland. 

There are more diplomatic ways of exploring such possibility. 

The clumsy way this idea was reintroduced (it's nothing new) reduces the chances of it happening even more.