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Donald Trump’s hostile approach to Greenland threatens to undermine the largely unfettered access the United States has with the Danish territory, America’s leading expert on the issue has warned.
Barack Obama’s former assistant secretary of state Frank Rose was the last U.S. official to negotiate a defence deal with Denmark and the Greenland Home Rule administration and spoke exclusively to The Independent about the international dispute threatening to break NATO.
“Like many things with the president, I don’t disagree with what he’s trying to do,” he said. “I disagree with the means he’s trying to get there.”
Rose described Greenland as “critical” to U.S. defence and in 2003/2004 was responsible for negotiating the agreement for satellite defence on the island as part of the early warning system for attacks on America.
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Donald Trump says he will forcibly take Greenland if Denmark is unwilling to sell it (AFP via Getty Images)
He noted that thanks to another treaty in 1951 the U.S. can “do whatever it wants” militarily on Greenland with the consent of the Danish government “and they were never going to say no”.
But he warned that with President Trump’s bellicose language of forcibly taking Greenland from Denmark, that the consent needed might not be forthcoming if the U.S. wants to put 10,000 troops on the island again – the number it had there until the end of the Cold War.
On Friday, Trump reiterated his intentions to take to take the territory one way or another and showed no sign of backing down.
“We’re going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not,” he told reporters. “We’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor. I would like to make a deal, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.
“I’m a big fan of Denmark, they’ve been very nice to me. But the fact they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”
The issue has shocked NATO allies with U.K. prime minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking twice to the president about it in a bid to persuade him to back off his demands.
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Frank Rose negotiated a deal with Denmark for the U.S. on Greenland (Frank Rose)
When it was put to Rose that Denmark and Greenland are not going to be cooperative because of the international backlash to Trump’s threats, he replied: “That’s quite possible.”
He went on: “I’ve worked with Danes for 25 years of my career. They are wonderful allies. They have shed blood for the United States in Afghanistan. These people are good allies.
“You know, you really don’t want to upset your friends for no reason. Sometimes you need to upset your friends. Okay, that’s just, that’s life. This is not one of those situations where we need to upset our friends to get what we need.
“I say this, as someone who’s actually negotiated with the Danes and the Greenland Home Rule government back in 2003/ 2004 to enhance the security of the United States, I understand how important Greenland is.”
As a a junior staffer at the Pentagon working on missile defense, he was responsible for working with the Danish government and the Greenland Home Rule government to allow them to upgrade the radar as part of the homeland missile defense mission.
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Vice President JD Vance toured the US military’s Pituffik Space Base in Greenland last year (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
He said the radar “is really critical with regards to our ability to protect the East Coast of the United States from long range missile threats from North Korea and potentially Iran.”
It is also critical to track missiles in space or ones fired over the poles by Russia or China.
The United States occupied Greenland during the Second World War after Denmark fell to Nazi Germany and then the treaty of 1951 meant that they could station whatever military they wanted afterwards.
“So Trump absolutely right about the strategic importance of Greenland, but fundamentally, under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Treaty, we basically have wide latitude to deploy additional troops as needed,” Rose said.
“We have all the legal rights necessary to do what we need to do. This is Donald Trump. He gets many of these, the fundamental issues right, but it’s how he goes about it. And I wish somebody on the National Security Council or the State Department was telling him that we can do whatever we need to do there.”