What is the story about?
Nordic diplomats have dismissed US President Donald Trump’s assertions that Russian and Chinese vessels are operating near Greenland, according to a report by the Financial Times on Sunday.
Citing two senior Nordic diplomats with access to NATO intelligence, the FT said there have been no indications in recent years of Russian or Chinese ships or submarines in the waters around Greenland.
“It is simply not true that the Chinese and Russians are there. I have seen the intelligence. There are no ships, no submarines,” one senior diplomat told the FT.
Another Nordic official called claims that Greenlandic waters were “crawling” with Russian and Chinese vessels unfounded, noting that any such military activity was limited to Russian Arctic waters.
Trump has repeatedly stated that Russian and Chinese ships are present near Greenland, a claim that Denmark has denied. The US president has not provided public evidence to substantiate these statements.
On Friday, Trump asserted that the United States must take ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark to prevent Russia or China from gaining a foothold in the strategically located and resource-rich island.
”The image that’s being painted of Russian and Chinese ships right inside the Nuuk fjord and massive Chinese investments being made is not correct,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said earlier this week.
Vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic and LSEG show no Chinese or Russian ship presence near Greenland.
Greenland’s assembly said late on Friday it would bring forward a meeting to discuss its response to U.S. threats to take control of the island.
Trump’s renewed push for Greenland, after U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, worries many of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants, whose widely held goal is to eventually become an independent nation.
With inputs from agencies
