Danes launch fighter jets over Greenland

Danes launch fighter jets over Greenland
Source: Daily Mail Online

Danish F-35 fighter jets and a French MRTT tanker conducted air-to-air refuelling training over southeast Greenland, video from Danish Defence showed on Friday.

The mission, part of stepped-up Arctic operations with European allies, focused on long-distance flying and operating safely in harsh polar conditions, according to the Danish Armed Force.

Donald Trump has said Greenland is vital to US security because of its strategic location and large supply of minerals and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.

European nations this week sent small numbers of military personnel to the island at Denmark's request.

A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers met the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Copenhagen on Friday, seeking to 'lower the temperature' with assurances of congressional support after Trump's threats to seize the Arctic island.

The French tanker aircraft departed from its base in southern France, to which it returned after completing the training in Greenland.

It comes after Trump warned the US may pull out of NATO if America's allies don't agree to its acquisition of Greenland.

'Will you pull out of NATO if it doesn't help you acquire Greenland,' a reporter asked the president outside the White House on Friday.

Danish F-35 fighter jets and a French MRTT tanker conducted air-to-air refuelling training over southeast Greenland, video from Danish Defence showed on Friday

The mission, part of stepped-up Arctic operations with European allies, focused on long-distance flying and operating safely in harsh polar conditions, according to the Danish Armed Force

Trump warned: 'We're going to see. NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland, we need Greenland for national security very badly. If we don't have it we have a very big hole in terms of national security, especially in terms of the Golden Dome.'

The Golden Dome is a proposed multi-layer missile defense system which the president says is reliant on seizing control of Denmark's Arctic territory.

Trump earlier threatened to impose tariffs 'on countries that don't go along with Greenland' as he escalated his pressure campaign.

Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden announced yesterday the deployment of small numbers of troops to Greenland in response to Trump's bellicose rhetoric.

A bipartisan congressional delegation arrived for talks in Copenhagen on Friday, aimed at shoring up support for America's NATO ally.

The 11 congressmen and women were to hold talks with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

'We are showing bipartisan solidarity with the people of this country and with Greenland. They've been our friends and allies for decades,' Democratic Senator Dick Durbin told reporters.

Donald Trump has said Greenland is vital to US security because of its strategic location and large supply of minerals and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.

It comes after Trump warned the US may pull out of NATO if America's allies don't agree to its acquisition of Greenland.

'Will you pull out of NATO if it doesn't help you acquire Greenland,' a reporter asked the president outside the White House on Friday. Trump warned: 'We're going to see. NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland, we need Greenland for national security very badly.'

'We want them to know we appreciate that very much. And the statements being made by the president do not reflect what the American people feel.'

The delegation's visit follows a meeting in Washington on Wednesday at which Danish representatives said they are in 'fundamental disagreement' with Trump over Greenland.

In Greenland's capital Nuuk, residents welcomed the show of support.

'Congress would never approve of a military action in Greenland. It's just one idiot speaking,' a 39-year-old union representative said.
'If he does it, he'll get impeached or kicked out. If people in Congress want to save their own democracy, they have to step up,' said the union rep, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump claims the United States needs mineral-rich Greenland and has criticized Denmark for, he says, not doing enough to ensure its security.

The president has pursued that argument, despite strategically located Greenland - as part of Denmark - being covered by NATO's security umbrella.

Military personnel were more visible in Nuuk on Friday, days after Denmark said it was beefing up its defense on the island.

'I don't think troops in Europe impact the president's decision-making process, nor does it impact his goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing.

Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen retorted that a US acquisition of Greenland was 'out of the question'.