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It's time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland. Those words of Donald Trump's special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, to the news agency AFP this evening. Now, Governor Landry also suggested that President Trump is talking about increasing national security operations and repopulating military bases in the on the Arctic Island. He made the comment during his first visit to the island since his appointment in December. He previously said the visit was aimed at building ties and making friends. The trip comes amid a continuing diplomatic dispute sparked by the US president's previous threat to seize the island.
Prime Minister against Frederick Nielsen reiterated that his country is not for sale. Earlier, Governor Landry appeared at the future Greenland business event to which organizers say he was not invited. Here he is giving reporters a geography lesson. But I found that Greenland was not on the map until Donald Trump put it on the map. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you all something. When's the last time that any highlevel diplomats came to Greenland, whether it's from Europe or not, before Donald Trump? Well, that's just more about you. NO, NO, NO, NO. THAT'S NOT NO, that's a question that Greenlanders should ask themselves. Who cares more about Greenlanders than the Trump administration and the president?
Because seemingly before the president, no one cared. Well, Yep. Kofod is a former Danish foreign minister. He's now a CEO of the Kofod Global Consultancy and joins us from Kee. Welcome to DW. Let's start with that claim from Jeff Landry that before Donald Trump made a fuss, nobody cared about Greenland. Is that true? No, it's not true at all. Um I mean when I was foreign minister, for example, uh I brought the then secretary of state Tony Blinken to Greenland back in 2021 in May uh to visit uh there. So I think that was a pretty high level visit to have a US Secretary of State and uh and also with the Greeni government and me as foreign minister. So no, it's not true. uh there's been a lot of um
engagement and interest from the US side in Greenland and from other side because Greenland is very important for Arctic uh security and um it's very important for North America. So it's not actually true. Okay. And this is a very odd way of conducting diplomacy. My understanding is Jeff Landry just turned up uninvited to this future Greenland Economic Forum and presumably um without the knowledge of the Danish and Icelandic authorities. So what do you think he's actually doing? Well, uh this is a business conference uh which take place every second year. Uh this year it has um a lot of uh of course uh attendance uh and it's it's for everybody to come and take part
in business relationship with Greenland and Greenland is open for business. very important to emphasize also with the US. So in that um with that background is uh it's good that there are US interest in Greenland but of course it's still a mystery uh why Mr. Landry went to Greenland. What was the exact purpose of the visit? Uh he is uh President Trump's special envoy for Greenland. Uh but what was the purpose? he was not invited for any speeches or any public appearance. Uh so it's still a mystery when he left, you know, what was actually the whole idea behind this visit. Come on, let me press you on this. You've been at this game quite some time. Um what's he up to?
Well, I mean, he was explicitly about Yeah. He wants to go to Greenland, listen, you know, that's what he said. I know we all know what he said. What's he doing? What do you think he's up to? What's his game? The game is that they know this threats to Greenland and Denmark doesn't work. I mean, not only Greenland, Denmark, but the whole of Europe reacted to this threat to taking over Greenland in a hostile way and so on. So now it's about listening and trying to build relationship with the Green Lantic society, people, businesses, showing you know in a way humility to come and listen and take part in important events in Greenland. So that's part of a bigger game. But I think the
problem here frankly speaking is back in January there was a high level working group uh put down by Vice President Pence uh Marco Rubio and of course the delegation from Greenland and Denmark. That high level working group is working to resolve the issue as we speak and suddenly there is this uh new invention of Mr. Landry going to Greenland. So it doesn't make sense if there was a real diplomatic effort why should he go and make this mysterious visit and I think the reason behind is that you know US or President Trump has not given up on this idea of uh of taking Greenland one way or the other. I think we have to be realistic here. Yeah.
Okay. Um we non-Des and non- Greenlanders we all thought this issue was done dusted settled. Are you surprised that the United States doesn't seem to share that view? Well, no. I mean, listen, President Trump in his first period as president, in the second term also, he has uh you know, stated many times that he think that uh Greenland is important for US security and therefore he needs to take Greenland. So uh I think um we can expect this issue to come back even if there is a diplomatic effort with the high level working group even as in according to my information they're doing real progress. I think you never know what Trump will do next. So
it's an ongoing uncertainty. Uh and um yeah that will stay with us I think as long as President Trump is the United States President. I like the idea of on ongoing uncertainty. Is there a plan somewhere in Nuke or in Copenhagen outlining the response if masses of US troops do suddenly turn up and say this is all ours now? Uh then everything uh stops. You know this will be the breakdown of the transatlantic alliance. Uh I mean you cannot have one NATO country and a close ally to take uh territory of another state. uh by force that will be unprecedented of course uh so I don't think this is really realistic but well you say that this is the president of the unprecedented so you know you I find it hard to believe that
there isn't a plan in a draw somewhere I think the plan for the Kingdom of Denmark and is to show military presence uh real you know with forces on the ground with naval of course which is there with air force and that effort is taking place as we speak. There's also the Arctic sentry the NATO operation in the high north. Uh so there will be a lot of activities going on all to show that you know this is a NATO area. This is the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland and uh no border should be changed by the use of force. uh and therefore I think it's very I think it's very theoretical and unlikely that will ever come uh to reality. I have to say yeah tell that to Venezuela and Cuba. Um this working group that was set up in
January, it had representatives from Denmark, Greenland, and the US. You say it's making progress. Donald Trump appears not to think it's making enough progress. What progress is it making? What has it achieved? Well, nothing really publicly has come out yet to be confirmed, but there's been this press reports uh I can refer to them about uh the military part uh you know saying that US will reopen some of the bases in Greenland uh which will be in line with the defense agreement from 1951 between US and Kingdom of Denmark. that would be very uncontroversial I think and then of course there is a whole economic aspect to this agreement uh US investment in critical raw materials in business
and trade with Greenland and I think that's also another issue that has probably close to be resolved but I think the problem right now frankly speaking is that Denmark is lacking a government because there's been an election general election back in March uh this year and uh in Denmark there's still no new government in place. They're still negotiating the parties after the election. So, as long as there's no new government in Denmark, there's not a mandate politically to, let's say, to strike a deal with the US. Also, sort of an open door for anyone with a massive military to just sort of walk in the US already has a major military presence at the uh Putific space base. What happens if Washington suddenly decides that space base needs thousands
more troops there? Well, Peter Fix Space Base is key to US security, always been. Um, it's part of the also missile defense system. It's part of detecting what goes on in the Arctic region. Um, again, I would say it's pretty uncontroversial. If you guys want to deploy more troops, more assets, more technology uh there, it will be something that uh Greenland and Denmark will welcome. I mean, listen, we all understand we live in a new age of geopolitics. We see Russia, of course, as aggressive power, huge Arctic power, threatening our security in Europe and also reopening bases in the Arctic region that was closed after the end of the Cold War. We see of course China global influence and so on. So I think
it's very natural that US is scaling up its efforts in Greenland and in Arctic including Peter Space Base. Thank you so much for giving us your time. Yep. Kofford from Kofford Global. Thank you.
