Greenland: the Prime Minister welcomes a “constructive” meeting with Donald Trump’s envoy, but without any change in positions

“It was a constructive meeting, where we were able to discuss in a good spirit and with great mutual respect. » Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed his first meeting this Monday with the United States envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry.

“We clearly reiterated that the Greenlandic people are not for sale and that Greenlanders have the right to self-determination. This is not a subject for negotiation,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen stressed to the press.

“This meeting showed no sign that anything has changed” in the American position, he noted.

“Our starting point has not changed. We have our red line. The Americans’ starting point has not changed either,” added Foreign Minister Múte Egede.

Originally governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry landed in Nuuk on Sunday, where he will attend an economic forum organized in the Greenlandic capital on May 19 and 20, before participating in the inauguration of the new premises of the American consulate on the island.

“Our only requirement is respect”

After the start of the year marked by the American president’s desire to “take control” of the Arctic island, an autonomous Danish territory, Copenhagen and Nuuk obtained the creation of a working group to discuss the concerns of the United States, particularly regarding their military presence. “Discussions take place within the working group,” underlined Múte Egede. We are not going to have parallel discussions. »

“We have been ready from the beginning and we said that we were ready to do more, to assume more responsibilities in terms of national or international security,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen recalled last week. “Our only requirement is respect,” he insisted.

The discussions are led on the American side by a senior State Department official, Michael Needham, while Jesper Møller Sørensen, the Danish ambassador to the United States, and Jacob Isbosethsen, a Greenlandic diplomat, are leading the negotiations in Washington for Denmark and Greenland respectively. According to the BBC, five meetings have taken place since January.