WASHINGTON — President Trump mentioned Saturday that he was dispatching a hospital boat to Greenland shortly after information broke that Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command evacuated a crew member from a US Navy submarine.
Danish protection minister Troels Lund Poulsen publicly claimed that his authorities had not been briefed on Trump’s plan and that there was “no want for particular well being care efforts” in Greenland.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen was extra blunt: “It’s a no thanks from right here.”
Trump wrote in a signed Reality Social submit late Saturday: “Working with the improbable Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we’re going to ship an incredible hospital boat to Greenland to maintain the various people who find themselves sick, and never being taken care of there.”
Landry was appointed particular envoy to Greenland after Trump repeatedly mentioned he wished to purchase or in any other case take over the territory, which is managed by NATO ally Denmark.
The US Navy has two huge hospital ships in its fleet, the Consolation and the Mercy.
Trump’s submit got here simply earlier than he hosted GOP governors on the White Home.
The medical incident impacted not less than one crew member, who wanted pressing remedy, whereas stationed on a US submarine in Greenlandic waters, Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command revealed Saturday.
That particular person was then transferred by way of a Danish Protection Forces Seahawk helicopter to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.
Trump’s overture to Denmark comes on the heels of a detente of kinds throughout his strain marketing campaign to accumulate the icy island.
The forty seventh president has lengthy sought to accumulate Greenland. Early final month, after he approved a raid to seize Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, his push for Greenland started to deeply unnerve European allies.
This was significantly true after the White Home initially declined to rule out using navy power to take over Greenland.
Denmark has repeatedly and forcefully refused to promote or switch the Arctic island to the US.
Quite a few European allies have stood by Denmark, backing up Copenhagen in its spat with the US.
In the end, the US, Greenland, and Denmark held negotiations to handle the deadlock. Late final month, Trump introduced that that they had come to a “framework of a future deal.”
Particulars of that deal are nonetheless murky, but it surely appeared to incorporate provisions aimed toward beefing up safety in Greenland amid fears of a rising Russian and Chinese language presence within the Arctic.
