EGN NEWS DESK
However, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen organized a gathering with party leaders on Thursday to debate the problem, whereas Rasmussen backpedaled on his preliminary nonchalant response. “We are taking this very critically, however we don’t have any ambition to escalate a disagreement with a president that’s on the way in which into the White House,” he mentioned.
Unfit to struggle an invasion
Under the 1951 pact, the U.S. accepted the authorized obligation to defend in opposition to any assault on the huge Arctic island, given the lack of the Danish armed forces to struggle off a possible aggressor with out assist.
“Denmark has been very conscious it can not defend Greenland in opposition to anyone by itself,” mentioned Kristian Søby Kristensen, a senior researcher on the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Military Studies. If Trump did attempt to seize the territory by pressure, “the query is: Who would [the Americans] be preventing? Their personal army? They’re already there,” he added.
The U.S. considerably decreased its army presence on the island after the Cold War ended, however an early warning radar station stays on the Pituffik house base within the northwest of Greenland. It’s a key asset that may spot spacecraft and ballistic missiles, together with potential nuclear warheads launched by Moscow.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s armed forces are neither outfitted nor educated to withstand a U.S. invasion. They “have been taking good care of extra mundane peace-time army exercise,” defined Søby Kristensen, and recurrently deploy maritime patrol plane and ships in Greenlandic waters.
In December final yr, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen introduced a brand new defense-spending bundle value a “double digit billion quantity” in krone to purchase two long-range drones, two canine sled patrols, and two inspection ships. The cash was additionally to fund the hiring of extra folks for Denmark’s Arctic Command within the capital, Nuuk, and an improve to Kangerlussuaq Airport to make it match for F-35 fighter jets.
