Danish PM says Greenland showdown at 'decisive moment'

COPENHAGEN

Denmark's prime minister has said her country faces a "decisive moment" in its diplomatic battle with the United States over Greenland, after President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the Arctic territory.

Ahead of meetings in Washington from Monday on the global scramble for key raw materials, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that "there is a conflict over Greenland."

"This is a decisive moment" with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland's future, she added in a debate with other Danish political leaders.

Frederiksen posted on Facebook that "we are ready to defend our values, wherever it is necessary, also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples' right to self-determination."

Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump's latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned U.S. "threatening rhetoric" after Trump repeated that Washington was "going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not."

"Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends," he told a defense conference in Salen where the U.S. general in charge of NATO took part.

Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington discussions.

Before meeting U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to address the "strategic challenges of the Far North," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

"Security in the arctic is becoming more and more important" and "is part of our common interest in NATO", he said at a joint news conference with Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.