Starmer ‘sets out position on Greenland’ in call with Trump
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said the territory’s future must be a matter for Greenland and Denmark alone.
Sir Keir Starmer “set out his position on Greenland” in a phone call with Donald Trump on Wednesday evening, Downing Street has said.
US officials have suggested America could use “military means” to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory, which Mr Trump claims is vital for national security.
Downing Street did not provide further details of Sir Keir’s comments during the call.
But the Prime Minister has repeatedly said the territory’s future must be a matter for Greenland and Denmark alone, including in the Commons earlier on Wednesday.
The row over Greenland has cast a shadow over relations between the US and Europe, with Denmark’s prime minister warning that a US takeover would spell the end of the Nato alliance.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio had earlier said Mr Trump was examining how to “acquire Greenland”, suggesting the US could offer to buy the territory but adding it “retains the option” to use force.
But writing in the Spectator, Lord Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as ambassador to the US last year over his connections with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused European nations of engaging in “histrionics about Greenland” due to their “growing geopolitical impotence”.
Arguing that Mr Trump was not going to “invade” Greenland, he dismissed concerns about sovereignty and Nato’s future as “performative” and called for a “considerably beefed-up role” for America in the territory to counteract threats from Russia and China.
Sir Keir’s call with Mr Trump comes as Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy prepares to meet US vice-president JD Vance on Thursday.
The meeting, at which Greenland is likely to feature, forms part of Mr Lammy’s visit to the US to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s declaration of independence from Britain.
The two men are long-standing friends, and Mr Lammy hosted Mr Vance and his family last year at Chevening, his grace-and-favour house in Kent.
Wednesday’s call also saw Sir Keir and Mr Trump discuss the seizure of oil tanker Marinera earlier in the day, continuing negotiations on the future of Ukraine and US military action in Venezuela.
It is the first time the two men have spoken since US special forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York on Saturday.
