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Cold shower. Diplomats described Trump’s pressure on the Danish prime minister because of Greenland

The conversation between Frederiksen and Trump, which took place even before the inauguration of the new head of the White House, lasted approximately 45 minutes. While the White House did not comment on the call, the Danish prime minister previously admitted that Trump refused to rule out the threat of using economic coercion in order to take control of Greenland. According to her words, she assured her that the island is not for sale.

From this moment on, Trump became aggressive and confrontational during the phone call, despite Denmark’s offer of greater cooperation with the US in the area of ​​military bases or mineral extraction, the FT wrote now with reference to current and former senior European diplomats who were informed in detail about the content of the phone call. According to them, the call took place in a very bad atmosphere overall.

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“It was terrible,” one of them told the newspaper. “He was very adamant. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I think it’s serious and potentially very dangerous,” added another.

“The intention was very clear. They want him. The Danes are now operating in crisis mode,” said one of the informed diplomats. “The Danes are completely frightened by this,” described the atmosphere in the Scandinavian country’s leadership, one of the diplomats. “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark, such as targeted tariffs,” a former Danish official familiar with the content of the phone call told the newspaper.

In response to the FT, the Danish Prime Minister’s office responded that it “does not identify with the content of the phone call, as presented to her by anonymous sources” – although Frederiksen previously said that Trump did not rule out economic pressure due to Greenland during his conversation with her.

In the first interview with his Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed this Friday that they would discuss the topic of Greenland later. According to the Danish side, they discussed, among other things, the situation in Ukraine and European security. The United States described the negotiations as “constructive”.

“Arctic security was not on the agenda, but it was agreed that it will be debated between the United States, Greenland and Denmark later,” the Danish ministry announced, according to Reuters.

The world’s largest island, Greenland, with a population of about 57,000, is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with self-government in internal affairs since May 1, 1979.

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