Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 1 day ago
CGTN Europe spoke to Lars-Christian Brask, Deputy Speaker of the Danish Parliament and Vice Chairman of the Foreing Policy Committee.
Transcript
00:00Well, the Danish prime minister says Denmark and Greenland are open to constructive dialogue on Arctic security, but she said any discussions would need to respect her country's territorial integrity. Lars Christian Braske is the deputy speaker of the Danish parliament.
00:17There is a clear red line from the Danish and the Greenlandic side that the sovereignty and land ownership or takeover is not an option.
00:31There has been in place for the last, yeah, since 1951, the U.S. have been able to have all the bases they want in Greenland.
00:41They used to have 17 bases and more than 10,000 people. Now they have one base and 100 plus people.
00:50Mr. Trump's critics might well say, well, look, this deal was essentially available weeks and weeks ago.
00:58So what was all the hysteria about?
01:00Well, I think that's a question for the president. It's certainly been a bizarre, unusual situation, because exactly as you say, this deal has been in place since 1951.
01:17And it was also what was proposed when we met with Rubio and Vance last week.
01:26So, you know, nothing has really changed apart from sanity being back in the White House.
01:34What has all of this done to the relationship between Europe and the United States?
01:40It will, to some extent, have hurt the trust level.
01:47It has caused anger, fear, angst in Greenland in particular, kids that can't sleep, kids that are worried that American troops are going to be in Greenland.
02:01So a lot of disturbance to a situation that didn't need to be disturbed.
02:09And where does all of this leave Europe and its future defense and come to that NATO?
02:18Well, we were already on that track.
02:22Europe need to expand its military force and need to invest more in being able to protect itself.
02:29When you watch President Trump in Davos making his speeches, I mean, as a politician, how do you judge what you're watching?
02:42Well, the key sentence I took off when I listened to his speech was sort of like, if I don't get Greenland, if you're used to negotiations, then you know.
02:59Well, psychologically, he has already accepted that that could be the case.
03:06So early in the day, when he said those words, I was sort of relatively relieved because as I took it down, it's basically him saying, I know that I won't get Greenland.
03:22Does that mean Mr. Trump has essentially climbed down?
03:29He has come to his sense and has, you know, started to treat an ally that has had more than 225 years or has had 225 years of diplomatic relationship in a proper way.
Comments

Recommended