UK Won’t Bow To Trump Over Greenland, Warns PM Starmer
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament on Wednesday he would not give in to pressure from US President Donald Trump over the future of the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, according to AFP report.
“I will not yield, Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs, and that is my clear position,” he told lawmakers.
He added also that he would host Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in London on Thursday.
Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on Britain and other European countries for opposing his bid for Greenland.
Meanwhile, Starmer was taunted in parliament by opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch over Trump’s condemnation of his government’s Chagos Islands deal.
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The Chagos agreement will see Britain hand the archipelago — some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) northeast of Mauritius to its former colony and pay to lease the US-UK military base there for a century.
Trump, on Tuesday via social media, slammed the move as “great stupidity”.
Responding to the criticism, Starmer told MPs: “The words from President Trump were expressly intended to put pressure on me to yield on my principles. What he said about Chagos was literally in the same sentence as what he said about Greenland. That was his purpose.
“And the future of Greenland is a binary issue that is splitting the world at the moment, with material consequences. I’ve been clear and consistent in my position on the future of Greenland. The future is for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone,” he said.
