Mette Frederiksen has said that Denmark is at a \u201cfateful moment\u201d amid Donald Trump\u2019s threats to take over Greenland, accusing the US of potentially turning its back on Nato.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a party leader debate at a political rally on Sunday, the Danish prime minister said her country was \u201cat a crossroads\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her comments came before a crucial week in increasingly tense relations between Denmark, Greenland and the US in which the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, are due to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are at a crossroads, and this is a fateful moment,\u201d said Frederiksen. \u201cWhat is at stake is bigger than what the eye can see, because if what we experience from the Americans is that they are actually turning their backs on the western alliance, that they are turning their backs on our Nato cooperation by threatening an ally, which we have not experienced before, then everything will stop.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, Trump said the US would take action on Greenland<\/a> \u201cwhether they like it or not\u201d. He said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.\u201d His administration has refused repeatedly to rule out the use of military force \u2013 despite Denmark and Greenland being Nato allies.<\/p>\n The Greenlandic prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, alongside the leaders of the country\u2019s four other political parties, responded by issuing a united statement that read: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be Americans, we don\u2019t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders. The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.\u201d<\/p>\n At the domestic political debate in Nyborg, Frederiksen said although she had seen Trump since then, she had not discussed Greenland with him since a phone call a year ago. Denmark<\/a> was, she said, \u201cdoing everything we can to make our position prevail in an American reality\u201d but that it had to \u201cstand firm\u201d on the issue of Greenland.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cIn our time, there will be a lot of setbacks where you can only choose between what is right and wrong, and this is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Describing the current situation between the longtime allies as a \u201cconflict over Greenland\u201d, she said: \u201cWe have received massive support from the countries in Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n