NUUK, Greenland: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is in Greenland for a three-day trip aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials at a time when the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic territory.
Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after US Vice President JD Vance visited a US air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.
Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible because of climate change. Trump has said that the landmass is critical to US security. It’s geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark.
After her arrival Wednesday, Frederiksen walked the streets of the capital, Nuuk, with the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. She is also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a visit due to last through Friday.
“It has my deepest respect how the Greenlandic people and the Greenlandic politicians handle the great pressure that is on Greenland,” she said in government statement announcing the visit.
On the agenda are talks with Nielsen about cooperation between Greenland and Denmark.
Nielsen has said in recent days that he welcomes the visit, and that Greenland would resist any US attempt to annex the territory.
“We must listen when others talk about us. But we must not be shaken. President Trump says the United States is ‘getting Greenland.’ Let me make this clear: The US is not getting that. We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” he wrote Sunday on Facebook.
“We must not act out of fear. We must respond with peace, dignity and unity. And it is through these values that we must clearly, clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours.”
For years, the people of Greenland, with a population of about 57,000, have been working toward eventual independence from Denmark.
The Trump administration’s threats to take control of the island one way or the other, possibly even with military force, have angered many in Greenland and Denmark. The incoming government chosen in last month’s election wants to take a slower approach on the question of eventual independence.
The political group in Greenland most sympathetic to the US president, the Naleraq party that advocates a swift path toward independence, was excluded from coalition talks to form the next government.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen, associate professor at the Danish Defense Academy, said last week that the Trump administration’s aspirations for Greenland could backfire and push the more mild parties closer to Denmark.
He said that “Trump has scared most Greenlanders away from this idea about a close relationship to the United States because they don’t trust him.”
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Danish prime minister visits Greenland as Trump seeks control of the Arctic territory
Danish prime minister visits Greenland as Trump seeks control of the Arctic territory
- Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible because of climate change
- It is geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark
Myanmar junta calls coup-protesting civil servants back to work
- Tens of thousands of public workers left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience after the junta took power in 2021
- Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military
YANGON: Myanmar’s junta called on Sunday for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists.”
After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.
Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides.
Last week, the junta completed a month-long election it has touted as a return to civilian rule.
But the dominant pro-military party won a walkover victory in a vote democracy watchdogs say was stacked with army allies to prolong its grip on power.
The junta’s National Defense and Security Council said civil servants who “left their workplaces without permission for various reasons” since February 2021 should “report and make contact with the offices of their former departments.”
“Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offense, as well as those who had committed offenses but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Public employees who had been absent from work were placed on blacklists, “leading some to remain in hiding,” it added.
After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest.
The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike.
Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved.
The junta’s phased elections ended last Sunday without voting in one in five of Myanmar’s townships, amid fighting that has left large swaths of the country outside military control.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in the previous election in 2020 — won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s party — did not appear on the ballot this time, the Asian Network for Free Elections said.
After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.
Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides.
Last week, the junta completed a month-long election it has touted as a return to civilian rule.
But the dominant pro-military party won a walkover victory in a vote democracy watchdogs say was stacked with army allies to prolong its grip on power.
The junta’s National Defense and Security Council said civil servants who “left their workplaces without permission for various reasons” since February 2021 should “report and make contact with the offices of their former departments.”
“Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offense, as well as those who had committed offenses but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Public employees who had been absent from work were placed on blacklists, “leading some to remain in hiding,” it added.
After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest.
The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike.
Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved.
The junta’s phased elections ended last Sunday without voting in one in five of Myanmar’s townships, amid fighting that has left large swaths of the country outside military control.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in the previous election in 2020 — won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s party — did not appear on the ballot this time, the Asian Network for Free Elections said.
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