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Matt Frei is joined by Danish MEP Henrik Dahl to react as Trump claims the US has secured permanent control over Greenland security.
The US President said the deal would allow America to take "whatever is necessary" to defend Greenland and the US.
He claimed the country would do so while preventing adversaries from establishing military bases, or making sensitive investments there without US approval.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
#mattfrei #greenland #donaldtrump #trump #denmark #uspolitics #europe #LBC
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0:00
The United States, Greenland and Denmark had reached a deal on the future, the security future
0:05
of Greenland. Considering all the stuff that Trump has been saying about Greenland at the beginning
0:10
of the year, this is very welcome news on one level. Remember when Trump said that, you know
0:15
he wanted to own Greenland, he would take it whether they liked it or not, in one way or the
0:20
other. I mean, it was real, you know, mobster language. He was channeling the Sopranos there
0:24
But now there seems to be a deal. And I just wonder what is actually in the deal and whether
0:29
people are happy with the deal. I mean, people who are invested in the future of both Greenland
0:33
and Denmark, not so much the United States. Let's welcome to the programme Henrik Dahl. He's been on
0:38
before Danish MEP from the Centre-Right Liberal Alliance Party. Henrik, good morning to you
0:42
Good morning. So what do you know about the deal and do you like the deal
0:48
What we know, we know from Donald Trump's comments on truth social and from the written
0:55
statement from the office of the Danish Prime Minister. We haven't seen all the details yet
1:00
As far as I can tell, it's a pretty good deal they have made because it preserves the status quo
1:06
of the 1951 defence agreement. And that, from our point of view, would be a very smooth landing
1:14
Okay. But so how does it differ to what we had before or what you had before
1:19
to be very honest um it seems to be mostly status quo uh it spells out um that the u.s has
1:30
an element of oversight in uh investments in greenland and and i i think it's a good idea to
1:38
to spell that out explicitly but um informally uh i think the u.s always had a certain oversight
1:45
But element of oversight can be lots of different things can it If it a veto for what the Greenlanders actually want or what Denmark wants then that not oversight that basically control True but maybe I can give you an example I was a member of the National Parliament in 2018
2:05
when there was an attempt to finance a new airport in Greenland with Chinese capital
2:13
And it was, in practice, it was vetoed by the Danish government, but I'm quite convinced it was also vetoed by the United States
2:21
So there has been a lot of consensus between former US administrations
2:26
and different Danish governments. So I can see that and I can see why the United States might want to veto it
2:33
and I can see why Denmark might want to veto such a deal. I mean, if it's as reasonable as you make it sound
2:39
this could all have been achieved, you know, over a very nice lunch of, you know, of fricadelle and, you know, and a good Danish beer
2:46
Why did we have to go through, you know, jump through all those hoops
2:50
and talk about the threat to NATO, etc., etc.? I mean, all this sound and fury is a part of Donald Trump's way of working
2:58
And I would also have preferred a quiet meeting somewhere and a sensible discussion and some nice compromise
3:07
because most of what has surfaced so far is just the status quo
3:13
But it would be a very interesting job for the historians of the future to figure out why you had to go through all this sound and fury first
3:21
But maybe Trump got something out of the deal that actually Greenland
3:25
you know, which wants to be independent, doesn't like, and which Denmark, which has, you know
3:30
jurisdiction over Greenland of a sort, also won't like. And we will only find out in the future
3:36
Maybe, I don't know, maybe they'll discover some kind of, you know, rare earth metals that they want to mine
3:42
and they're going to do it and they're not going to give you, you know, much of the profits. I mean, this has happened before
3:46
what's happening right now with Venezuela and America. So do you really trust Donald Trump or any American president
3:52
to stick to the words of this and the spirit of this agreement Well I think the answer is no That very hard to tell
4:04
And trust, as you know, has to be earned. And you have to look at what has happened in the past
4:08
and say, have you earned the trust? Well, maybe the jury is still out on that
4:12
I think so. But we haven't seen the full agreement yet. Supposedly, it will be signed at a ceremony
4:22
at the UN General Assembly in New York, I think it's next week, and then it will have to be ratified
4:27
in three different parliamentary bodies and then it will finally be able to enter into force
4:34
But we have to read the full agreement, including the fine print. Because, you know, when you see the language
4:39
that he's been using in the past, when you see the way that he's been talking about his
4:43
you know, second biggest trading partner and next door neighbor, Canada, when you see the way that he's been denigrating
4:49
and insulting the EU, I'm afraid none of that fills me with any confidence at all, that if there is a reasonable agreement here, that he will stick to the spirit or the
4:58
letter of it. Yeah, but you're getting into a very interesting problem, because can you trust Donald Trump
5:09
and how much value should you put on his word and his signature
5:16
Does the signature have any value? We've seen it with the Turnberry deal. We thought we had a deal. And then it turns out that he can change the tariffs or he can announce that he wants to change the tariffs at no notice, just, you know, as a whim from his part
5:33
So, yeah, can Donald Trump be trusted? We don't know. So I guess at the end of the day, this buys you a quiet night's sleep, or maybe several
5:41
quiet nights sleep, and then you'll wait and see how it pans out and maybe hope for a president
5:46
who actually is slightly less erratic in his language than the current one
5:51
Well until proven wrong we have to assume that you can trust the president and that he will honor the agreement that he has made So just finally I mean we talked at the beginning of the program
6:05
about this middle power club and the association agreement between the EU and Canada
6:14
What do you make of that? Do you think that's something worth pursuing? Is that something that Denmark believes in
6:21
I think from the point of view of Mark Carney, it's a very logical next step after the speech he delivered in Munich in February, I believe, because that was a speech where he talked about the middle powers and what are the middle powers supposed to do now
6:36
I was in the plenary in Strasbourg when he delivered the speech to the European Parliament, and I thought it was an excellent speech
6:42
So the positive interpretation is that this is an attempt to deliver on the ysis of the middle powers
6:49
and potentially it could be very valuable. He also said something interesting in this speech because he said
6:54
from the point of view of Canada, what we don't want to be is a superpower with better manners
6:59
And that was, of course, a very good turn of phrase. We all understood what he means
7:05
But it's sort of that we are uniting our forces and advantages
7:12
Right. And do you think that, I mean, I talked to an Irish minister just 10 minutes ago and asked him, where is the European, Mark Carney, where's the European voice that speaks for all of Europe
7:22
I know there are differences between this in this club of 27 sovereign nation states, but we do all supposedly share some values
7:29
Where is the European voice that can make the same sound and deliver the same message as Mark Carney can from Canada
7:37
Well, supposedly it's a commission president, but she's also a controversial figure
7:41
So but I think she's she's the best. She's our best bid
7:47
OK, Henrik Dahl, Danish MEP from the Centre-Right Liberal Alliance Party. thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning
7:53
explaining that he seems to be happy about the Greenland deal, so we'll take his word for it
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