‘We are not out of the crisis,’ Danish FM says as Anand visits Greenland

The new diplomatic ties between Greenland and Canada come after Trump continues to threaten the sovereignty of both nations. Abigail Bimman reports.

NUUK, Greenland – While both Danish and Greenlandic leaders cite progress in diplomatic talks with the United States, they also suggest there is a long road ahead.

“We are not out of the crisis, and we do not have a solution yet,” Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Saturday.

Rasmussen said initial diplomatic meetings with the U.S. have taken place and more are scheduled, but he declined to share details.

He said Denmark has made its “red line” regarding Greenland’s sovereignty very clear in talks, but did not say whether the U.S. has agreed to it.

“We are not where we want to be yet,” said Greenland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Motzfeldt.

She said things are “much better” than they were a month ago, when U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up threats to take over the autonomous Danish territory. He has since backed off.

“There is going to be a long track, so where we’re going to land at the end, it’s too early to say,” Motzfeldt said.

The pair was answering reporters’ questions Saturday alongside Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.

The news conference took place in front of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS Jean Goodwill, currently docked in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.

Anand, along with Governor General Mary Simon, has held a number of meetings with leaders in Denmark and Greenland around the opening of the Canadian consulate in Nuuk on Friday.

• Canada’s Governor General says nobody is ‘immune’ to the comments made by Trump on Greenland

“Our work here, from a diplomatic standpoint, is going to serve many Canadians, many people of Greenlandic and Danish descent,” Anand said Saturday, adding “we look forward to people-to-people ties, especially amongst northerners and Inuit.”

Both Rasmussen and Motzfeldt thanked Canada for its support.

“As the Prime Minister of Canada stated very clearly in Davos, the middle powers have to come together and work together, and I think that’s what we have done here,” Rasmussen said.

Motzfeldt said Canada’s support “brings comfort and reassurance,” adding that Greenland wants to “mirror” Canada’s diplomatic move with a presence in Canada in the years ahead.