Protesters had been gathering for rallies in each Denmark and Greenland on Saturday against US President Donald Trump’s threats to take over the Arctic island.
In Denmark, hundreds turned out in the cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense to stand in solidarity with the Greenlandic population.
Many waved banners with slogans together with “Hands off Greenland” alongside the territory’s crimson and white flag, in accordance to Reuters.
The protests throughout Denmark had been organized by Greenlandic organizations in cooperation with the NGO ActionAid Denmark. A press release from ActionAid stated the unrest was intentionally deliberate to coincide with a go to of US senators to Denmark.
“We are demonstrating against American statements and ambitions to annex Greenland,” Camilla Siezing, Chair of the Joint Association Inuit – one of many Greenlandic organizations concerned in planning the protests – stated.
“We demand respect for the Danish Realm and for Greenland’s right to self-determination. Hopefully, we can show that we are many who support Greenland.”
A protest can also be scheduled for later Saturday in Greenland’s capital of Nuuk. Asked what her message to President Trump was, one feminine protester in Nuuk advised NCS, “We are not for sale.”
Trump has in latest weeks ramped up his rhetoric round Greenland, insisting that it should come beneath the management of the United States. Earlier this week, Trump stated that “anything less” than that will be “unacceptable,” arguing the US wants the territory for nationwide safety functions, which might in flip strengthen NATO.
His repeated statements have strained diplomatic relations between the US and Denmark, which owns the territory however provides the native inhabitants the best to self-determination, whereas additionally prompting condemnation from NATO’s European member states.
Amid the escalating scenario, a US delegation of bipartisan lawmakers had been despatched to Copenhagen to meet with leaders from Denmark and Greenland.
In a press convention on Saturday, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who’s main the delegation, stated the Trump administration’s “tempo of statements” round Greenland’s potential acquisition was not constructive.
Senator Coons additionally expressed his respect to the indigenous individuals of Greenland, telling journalists that it was a “remote and difficult place to live, and that the population of Greenland has managed to carve out of an exceptionally difficult environment, a culture and an approach to living that is worthy of deep respect.”
The US lawmaker sought to spotlight the partnership between the US and Denmark, together with in the army sphere, saying that the delegation would go to a cemetery later Saturday to lay a wreath for Danish troopers who fell preventing alongside American troops in conflicts such because the warfare in Afghanistan.
Reporting from Greenland’s capital of Nook, NCS’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson stated the go to by the US lawmakers was supposed to sign how a lot Denmark’s army partnership with the US is appreciated. “The visit to that cemetery today to lay a wreath, really for them, will sort of encapsulate how much the United States has valued that partnership, valued the lives laid down by Denmark, by Danish troops,” he stated.
Kit Maher and Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting.