Denmark 'open to dialogue' with US on Arctic amid Trump bid to take over territory

Denmark is open to talks with the United States to safeguard US interests in the Arctic, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, set off new alarm on Tuesday when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.

Trump's comments came as his son Donald Trump Jr. made a private visit to the Arctic island that is an autonomous Danish territory.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters that the Danish Realm – which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands – is "open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can cooperate, possibly even more closely than we already do, to ensure that American ambitions are fulfilled".

Lokke Rasmussen noted that the United States and NATO had "legitimate" interests in the region because of international events.

"In conjunction with the melting of the Arctic and new shipping lanes opening up, we are unfortunately also seeing an increase in great power rivalry. We see a Russia that is arming itself. We see a China that is also starting to take an interest," the foreign minister said.

The top diplomat urged calm amid the new frenzy.

"I try to deal with the realities, and I think we should all do ourselves a favour by getting our heart rate down a bit," he said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told TV2 television on Tuesday she did not believe Trump's pursuit of Greenland would ever include military force.

"I don't have the fantasy to imagine that it'll ever get to that," she said, calling for cool heads to prevail.

Blinken dismisses Trump comments

Denmark's comments struck a noticibly more conciliatory tone than those from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke in Paris on Wednesday. 

"The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one," Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Paris with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, adding that it was "obviously not going to happen".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)