By Magnus Lund Nielsen
(EurActiv) — Donald Trump appointed Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland on Monday, following the US president’s repeated public threats to take over the semi-autonomous island of the Kingdom of Denmark.
“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our national security,” Trump wrote on social media, adding that Landry advances “the survival of our allies, and indeed, the world”.
Landry is the current governor of Louisiana, a southern US state bordering Texas.
While Trump did not repeat his earlier threats to seize Greenland upon announcing the appointment, Landry wrote on social media that it was “an honour to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US”.
“You cannot annex other countries. Not even with the argument of international security,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his Danish counterpart wrote in a joint statement.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the US should not take over Greenland.”
Frederiksen and Nielsen’s responses are met with solidarity from Brussels, where Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa wrote that “territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law.
“We stand in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland,” their identical posts read.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he will summon US ambassador Ken Howery for a talk, saying that “the appointment confirms that American interest in Greenland remains strong.”
Howery refused in October to rule out that the US would apply military force to annex Greenland, an ally of the US through Denmark’s NATO membership.
Earlier this month, the Danish intelligence service for the first time ever mentioned the US as a potential threat to the kingdom.
“The US is now using its economic and technological strength as a means of exerting power, even over allies and partners,” the report wrote.
Trump’s repeated wishes to take over Greenland have tested diplomatic relations between Copenhagen and Washington. In January, Løkke Rasmussen called the overtures “the most serious foreign policy crisis we have had in Denmark in many, many generations”.