»I am no Chamberlain, and I do not see this as Peace in our Time.«
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) is known for his colorful language and had one of his more telling remarks after the meeting between him, Greenland’s Vivian Motzfeldt, and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio: That he, Danish Lars Løkke, is not the 2026 equivalent of the 1930s British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.
Behind the statements is this: on the one hand, Løkke got just about everything he could have hoped for out of the meeting with Vance and Rubio—a continued high-level dialogue between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States about Greenland, with Danes, Greenlanders, and Americans at the table. And—maybe—a new agreement among Denmark, Greenland, and the U.S. beyond what’s already in place. Or simply an expansion of the 1951 agreement.
That’s the upside—a win for Danish diplomacy. But it doesn’t make the situation any less serious or any more predictable. The crisis is far from over.
Therefore, it was important for Løkke to deliberately downplay himself.
As they said in the Danish delegation—off the record, of course—his brief was to keep the doom and gloom alive.
Precisely to avoid becoming a Neville Chamberlain. The British Prime Minister who met Germany’s Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in Munich in 1938. A meeting that went well and which Chamberlain mistakenly converted into a belief that the war was averted.
It is, as we know, not over in any way, but another step has been taken in Denmark’s – and Greenland’s – favor in a crisis that is unprecedented in our world of international rules, conventions, and alliances.
Where facts and alliances seem irrelevant to the American president, it is precisely that and only that which the Danish and Greenlandic governments have to work with.
Hope is the trump card
Reportedly, Løkke and Motzfeldt tried to present facts about both the Chinese warships, which are not off Greenland’s coast despite Trump’s claims to the contrary. And about what Denmark has actually done to prevent China from gaining access to Greenland. For example, by having Denmark pay for the airport in Nuuk. Not China.
The meeting could have gone wrong here, as Vivian Motzfeldt herself has been very inviting towards China, and there was great concern before the meeting that Vance or Rubio would start probing into this. Whether it was because they did not know or because they did not want to use it is unknown. It was at least reported that it was not mentioned.
Alliances have tightened significantly over the past year, and this week some of the key ones were nailed down. Most notably, Greenland’s premier, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, nailed his colors to the mast in favor of the Kingdom after weeks of mixed signals from Greenland. There was also the parade of NATO countries backing the military exercise in Greenland, sending convoys of troops and equipment north—almost in step with Løkke and Motzfeldt’s meeting with Vance and Rubio.
It may seem like very little in the unpredictable game that Donald Trump, as president of the world’s superpower, is playing. Neither Denmark nor Greenland can play that game; we do not have the cards, and therefore Løkke and Motzfeldt played the cards they brought to Washington.
The only trump card they have against Trump is hope. The hope that increased NATO contributions and open arms towards more U.S. presence in Greenland will make Trump back down, but still proclaim victory for himself. Where he, by threatening, gets what he wants in and out of Greenland.
As in Panama: he threatened to take it, but didn’t—because he got what he came for.
Løkke brought that up in Washington when he met the Danish press. Maybe a bit careless, given that the whole exercise—beyond the facts and the alliances—was about not poking Trump.
On the other hand, if Trump wants to be provoked, he’ll be. That’s just as unpredictable.
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