Sir Keir Starmer has said he “stands” with Denmark after Donald Trump threatened to annex Greenland.
The Prime Minister added that his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen was “right” to refuse the US president any claim to the territory.
Sir Keir’s signal of solidarity with European Nato ally Denmark comes as the US president suggested over the weekend that Venezuela may not be the last country subject to American intervention, after his administration raided Caracas and captured president Nicolas Maduro.
“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Mr Trump told the Atlantic magazine, following the operation in Venezuela.
The Danish leader hit back, writing in a statement that “the US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom”, of which Greenland is one.
Asked during a visit to a community centre in Berkshire about Ms Frederiksen’s strong language, Sir Keir told Sky News: “Well, I stand with her, and she’s right about the future of Greenland.”
The Prime Minister was asked by the BBC if he agreed with calls from the Danes for the US president to stop proposing American annexation of the island.
“Yes,” Sir Keir replied, adding: “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.
“Denmark is a close ally in Europe, it is a Nato ally, and it’s very important the future of Greenland is, as I say, for the Kingdom of Denmark, and for Greenland, and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
The Labour Government has in recent months been forging closer ties with Denmark, and has been taking cues from Ms Frederiksen’s government – which is of a similar political tradition – on how to crack down on illegal migration.
Washington over the weekend removed Venezuela’s president Maduro from the country, and has taken him to New York where he is set to face a courtroom on Monday on charges of “narco-terrorism”.
The move, seen as the most assertive US intervention to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has sparked murmurs among Trump allies for the president to follow through on his suggestions of acquiring Greenland as an American territory.
Katie Miller, the wife of one of Mr Trump’s senior aides Stephen Miller, posted a picture on social media of Greenland in the colours of the American flag alongside the word “soon” following the Venezuela operation.
