Denmark said on Monday it would spend 14.6 billion Danish kroner ($2.05 billion) boosting its military capabilities in the Arctic \u2013 a decision that comes amid continuing furor following US President Donald Trump\u2019s renewed interest in controlling Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. <\/p>\n
The agreement aims to \u201cimprove capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region,\u201d according to a statement from Denmark\u2019s Ministry of Defense. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, support to Allies and NATO\u2019s efforts in the Arctic and North Atlantic is essential to strengthening overall security and defense,\u201d the statement added. <\/p>\n
As part of the investment package, Denmark will fund three new Arctic naval vessels, two long-range drones with the ability to conduct surveillance over large areas and increased admission to Arctic basic military training. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe must face the fact that there are serious challenges regarding security and defense in the Arctic and North Atlantic,\u201d Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark\u2019s minister of defense, said. \u201cFor this reason, we must strengthen our presence in the region. That is the objective of this agreement, which paves the way for further initiatives already this year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Vivian Motzfeldt, Denmark\u2019s minister of statehood and foreign affairs, added that \u201cGreenland is facing a changing security landscape.\u201d <\/p>\n
The announcement comes after the European Union said it was \u201cnot negotiating\u201d on the sovereignty of Greenland <\/p>\n
Asked if the EU should negotiate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Denmark, EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: \u201cNo, we are not negotiating on Greenland. Of course, we are supporting our member state Denmark and its autonomous region, Greenland.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump, who took office on January 20, has previously described US control of Greenland as an \u201cabsolute necessity.\u201d Both Greenland and Denmark have said previously that the island is not for sale. <\/p>\n
The question to Kallas on Monday came after she told a press conference that Europe needed to \u201cclose ranks\u201d as the \u201cUnited States shifts to a more transactional approach\u201d in its foreign relations. <\/p>\n
She told the same conference that the US was an \u201cimportant ally\u201d and that America and Europe were \u201cvery much interlinked,\u201d but added that \u201cit\u2019s not like somebody is telling us what to do and we are following\u201d and warned against further speculation over Greenland. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t also go into speculation about the \u2018what ifs,\u2019 because this is not the situation right now,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Still, US and Danish officials have said they don\u2019t understand the incoming president\u2019s obsession with acquiring Greenland, which Trump has called \u201can absolute necessity,\u201d particularly because the US already has a decades-old defense agreement with the territory that has allowed the US to build up a significant military presence \u2014 including troops and radar systems \u2014 on the world\u2019s largest island. <\/p>\n
Despite those rebuttals, the debate over Greenland\u2019s future has been stirred up by growing speculation over its independence movement. <\/p>\n
In his New Year\u2019s speech, Greenland\u2019s prime minister said the island should break free from \u201cthe shackles of colonialism\u201d \u2013 though the speech did not mention the United States. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Denmark said on Monday it would spend 14.6 billion Danish kroner ($2.05 billion) boosting its military capabilities in the Arctic \u2013 a decision that comes amid continuing furor following US President Donald Trump\u2019s renewed interest in controlling Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. The agreement aims to \u201cimprove capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}