Frederiksen heads to New York to sign Greenland agreement

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is travelling to the United States to sign an agreement on Greenland’s future, DR reports. She said the deal had taken extensive political and diplomatic work and was important for Greenland and the entire Kingdom of Denmark.

Frederiksen declined to disclose the agreement’s specific contents before it is signed.

“I will not go into the substance of this, and there is a great deal of speculation,” she told reporters before boarding the aircraft to the United States.

She said neither she nor Jens-Frederik Nielsen, head of Greenland’s government, would sign an agreement that was not good for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.

The signing ceremony will bring Frederiksen together with US President Donald Trump in New York, although the timing of their meeting has not been announced. The agreement will be signed in connection with the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place in New York in the coming days.

“I have a good relationship with the American president, and in an unsettled world I believe this agreement is good for our security,” Frederiksen said.

She said the agreement was beneficial for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States, and therefore also for NATO and security, particularly in the Arctic region.

Frederiksen said it had been crucial for Denmark and Greenland that the United States respected their “red lines”. According to the prime minister, the agreement safeguards the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenlanders’ right to self-determination and what she called the kingdom’s territorial integrity.

Representatives travelling to New York from Denmark are Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. Greenland will be represented by Nielsen and Foreign Affairs Minister Múte B. Egede.