FILE PHOTO: U.S. Embassy building is pictured in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2, 2017. Picture taken October 2, 2017. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS/File Photo
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -The United States has no current plans to increase its military presence in Greenland, the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen said on Thursday, after President-elect Donald Trump expressed renewed interest in acquiring the vast Arctic island.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said this week that U.S. control of the strategically important island was an "absolute necessity" and did not rule out using military or economic action such as tariffs against Denmark to make it happen.
Greenland, the world's largest island, has been controlled by Denmark for centuries, though its 57,000 people now govern their own domestic affairs.
"There are no plans to increase the United States' current military footprint in Greenland," the spokesperson told Reuters. "We will continue to work closely with Copenhagen and Nuuk (Greenland's capital) to ensure any proposals meet our common security needs."
The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence at the Pituffik air base in Greenland's northwest.
Greenland is crucial for the U.S. military and its ballistic missile early-warning system, since the shortest route from Europe to North America runs via the island.
"I think that the Americans are quite concerned that Russia could actually launch or initiate a major attack against the United States, and that could be done from the Russian side," analyst at Nordic Defence Analysis Jens Wenzel told Reuters.
"There is no real monitoring of the airspace in Greenland, it is largely a free-for-all," he said.
Greenland is already covered by U.S. security guarantees via Denmark's membership of NATO. Although the former colony is now broadly self-governing within the kingdom of Denmark, security and foreign affairs are still handled by Copenhagen.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said this week she could not imagine that the United States would use military intervention in Greenland and said it was up to the people of Greenland to decide what they want.
'TIGHTROPE'
Frederiksen summoned leaders of Denmark's political parties to a meeting at 1830 GMT on Thursday for a briefing about Trump's renewed interest. She rebuffed an offer from Trump in 2019 to buy Greenland.
On Wednesday Frederiksen hosted Greenland's leader Mute Egede for talks in Copenhagen. Egede favours independence for his homeland and has said it is not for sale.
Egede discussed trade and other issues with the outgoing U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen on Wednesday, the embassy said.
Last month Trump said he had picked Ken Howery as the new U.S. envoy to Denmark. As a co-founder of PayPal, Howery is considered a member of the "PayPal Mafia" of former workers and executives at the digital finance firm that includes prominent Trump supporters Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
"They're walking a tightrope," said Lin Alexandra Mortensgaard, a Greenland expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, referring to the Danish and Greenland prime ministers.
"It's a balance between representing an autonomous territory and representing a sovereign state while still taking the requirements of Denmark's closest ally seriously," she said.
Denmark's European allies France and Germany have responded to Trump's comments by stressing the inviolability of borders.
Britain's foreign minister David Lammy said on Thursday he believed Trump recognised that Greenland was part of Denmark and that concerns about Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic lay behind the U.S. president-elect's remarks.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Moscow was following closely the "dramatic development" on Greenland and said the Arctic fell within Russia's zone of strategic national interests.
In Greenland, opinions on the island's future appear divided, with some warmly welcoming Trump's remarks and others responding sceptically.
Danish lawmakers across the political spectrum have urged Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, to firmly reject any attempt by foreign powers to undermine Greenland's status.
"The U.S. wants to take over Denmark's role in Greenland, and the Danish government must say a clear and unequivocal no to that," former conservative minister Rasmus Jarlov said on X.
Meanwhile, the screenwriter of the hit Danish TV drama series "Borgen", Adam Price, joked on Instagram that it was becoming "increasingly difficult to write political fiction when real-life politics are becoming more and more extreme".
"All that's left is to get some popcorn," he added.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Louise Rasmussen and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Gareth Jones)
