Good morning,
"OK," said Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to himself, before breathing a deep sigh into the mike, as he prepared to brief global media outside the Danish embassy in Washington on Wednesday (14 January) evening about US threats to annex Greenland.
First, the news: Rasmussen's one-hour long talks with the US vice-president and secretary of state ended with no change in the US position, but plans for a "high-level working group" to meet in the next few "weeks" to seek a "compromise".
"We had frank, but constructive discussions ... our perspectives continue to differ, I must say," Rasmussen said.
"We didn't manage to change the American position ... it's clear the American president has this wish of conquering over Greenland [sic]," he added.
Greenland's foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, who also took part in Wednesday's meeting, said she was happy to cooperate with Washington, but "that doesn't mean we want to be owned by the US".
"The meeting was held in a respectful way and we have shown where the limits are," she added.
Rasmussen also said the "compromise" could be a greater Nato presence in Greenland, even though this would not square the circle of accommodating both the US line and Danish "red lines".
Next, the tragicomedy.
But while Wednesday's meeting was designed to "lower the temperature" after 13 months of belligerent US tweets, Rasmussen also debunked US president Donald Trump's false claims, while struggling to keep a straight face, given the absurdities coming out of the White House.
Trump had said Danish defence of Greenland was a dog-sled, but Rasmussen noted Denmark was investing €1.3bn in new "warships, drones, and jets" for Greenland patrols.
Trump had said Chinese ships were menacing Greenland, but Rasmussen said "we haven't seen a Chinese warship [there] for a decade".
Trump had also said he had to own Greenland to defend it, while Rasmussen said this was "absolutely not necessary", as Denmark was America's 225-year-old ally, which had fought alongside the US in Afghanistan, and would let it put as many soldiers or bases on Greenland as it wanted to under a 1958 treaty.
The US did not immediately comment on Wednesday's talks.
But they took place in what Rasmussen called an "emotional" atmosphere - Denmark and top EU officials have said US annexation would mean the "end of Nato".
France and Germany have indicated the same, while offering to send troops to Greenland as a deterrent, to join extra Danish soldiers already going there.
And looking at the comments on YouTube during the live feed of Rasmussen's briefing, you might find it hard to believe the US and EU really were allies.
"Adolf-Trump!", one European commentator said, for instance. "Shut up and surrender," a US viewer said, which all left Russia to gloat on the sidelines.
"The Gallic cock [French president Emmanuel Macron] has crowed that, if the sovereignty of Denmark is affected, the consequences would be unprecedented. Ooh, what they will do?! Kidnap POTUS? Nuke the US? Course not. They'll just shit their pants and give up Greenland. And that'd be a great European precedent," said Russian deputy security council chief Dmitry Medvedev on X as Rasmussen spoke.
– Andrew Rettman, foreign-affairs editor
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