0:00
J.D. Vance, who's sort of, he's just sort of the world's worst diplomat
0:06
It's just an extraordinary ability. So he's flown into an American airbase in Greenland with his wife
0:13
who's complained that it's really cold, using language I can't use on the radio
0:18
Greenland, really cold. Whoever thought? And Vance then goes on and just basically makes loads of false assertions
0:25
about how Denmark has treated the people of Greenland really badly. and the net result of this is just i find it quite uplifting which is uh that four of the five
0:35
parties uh political parties in greenland have now signed a coalition agreement to oppose trump
0:41
and jd vance and their attempts to essentially make greenland an extension of the united states
0:48
i mean i just want to talk very briefly uh about the united states greenland its attitudes towards
0:55
Denmark. I was talking to Elliot earlier and just saying it just feels like the world has just
1:02
completely gone completely mad since Trump's gone to the White House and we're sort of discussing
1:08
that this that we've lived for years and years and years certainly since the war under sort of
1:13
agreed agreed protocols about how things are done that people haven't really sort of never really
1:19
given much thought to before it just how things are done and Trump come and smashed them apart and while we yet to see any sort of sense of rebuilding from this deconstruction this destabilisation
1:32
I have to say, if you lived in Greenland, in Denmark, Canada, Mexico
1:40
and some of the language that's coming out of the White House are from J.D. Vance. You really have to wonder
1:45
Well, I'm joined by Morten Runeland, Danish political commentator and journalist from Denmark
1:50
Good morning to you, Morten. Good morning. I mean, J.D. Vance, touching down in Greenland, his wife remarking that it's extremely cold
1:59
which is, I mean, just such an infantile comment. It's beyond belief. And then the language that for Denmark doesn't look after Greenland
2:05
which has prompted Greenland's politicians to unite in opposition to what the United States is doing
2:11
Can you make any sense of this, Martin? No, I really can't
2:15
But it has had that positive effect that the coalition government in Greenland is very wide now
2:22
It's a lot of parties across all spectrums just coming together and being one Greenland against this sort of strange entity that is the US right now
2:33
I can't help but wonder when you look at Donald Trump's inverted commas peace plan for Ukraine, which now broadly looks like where you can be run by Russia or we'll take everything you have
2:46
And that's peace. Seems a very poor deal. But you can see that Trump wants stuff from Ukraine badly What his interest in Greenland What he want Yeah the hypothesis could be that there is always also stuff in Greenland
3:02
that he would be interested in, a lot of natural resources, earth minerals, stuff like this
3:08
And then there is the security issue, but everybody knows this. We've already on this
3:12
They have a base on Greenland. This is not new information. So maybe it's about the natural resources
3:18
of Greenland this time. One can't help but wonder if that is the interest
3:24
How do you foresee the remainder of Trump's presidency? How is it going to affect the people of Greenland and Denmark
3:31
Well, it depends on how he's going to proceed, because he has changed his stance a little bit
3:38
It's now about the Greenlandic people can choose their own faith and they think it's going to be America
3:47
whereas in the beginning it was we're going to take it by force. It could be military
3:51
That kind of has changed over the last few weeks. So a lot depends on which way he takes it in his rhetoric
4:00
He hasn't really done anything apart from these visits. But the next step is really up to him
4:07
It seems the Danish government is keeping in line with this is a part of our kingdom
4:12
And we will work, Denmark will work for the independence of Greenland
4:17
but over years over time one step at a time My next question I don want it to sound crass because as you rightly said there was this sort of threat of you know we take it by force But is there a sense this is sort of like madness
4:33
like it's some kind of bad joke being played out by Trump? Yeah, we are in disbelief
4:39
That's the reaction here. It's disbelief. The question is, what's the strategy
4:44
And also, why this method? Why is this the method? It lacks some sort of diplomatic elegance
4:51
and that confuses us, to say the least. That's part, I think, of this Trump sort of smashing down
4:58
the protocols that the world has operated on since the war and with nothing to replace them with at the moment
5:07
Yeah, but does it work? Things have been smashed, that's true, but we haven't really seen anything work
5:15
We haven't seen him, oh, that's the trick. We haven't had this epiphany of, oh, he's smart, yet it's just a lot of crashing stuff
5:25
It certainly is. And it probably doesn't offer you any comfort at all
5:29
but certainly your friends here in Britain are absolutely stunned and mystified by it
5:34
as you guys are in Denmark. It's a crazy world, and it seems to be being made crazier for no really good reason
5:42
J.D. Vance arguing it's all about Arctic security. J.D. Vunt's touchdown on the U.S. base in Greenland
