Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson, Berlin, Germany, 18 November 2025. © Sebastian Gollnow / image alliance via Getty Images
The claims of U.S. president Donald Trump of strong Chinese and Russian military presence close Greenland are “an exaggeration”, said Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson. Trump claims that only U.S. sovereignty can prevent the Danish autonomous island from being taken over by Beijing or Moscow.
Trump resumed efforts this period to conquer the largest island in the planet and did not regulation out military force.
European NATO members avoided public questioning of its justification, although officials privately rejected these claims by giving anonymous interviews to the press.
"If you say Greenland is flooded with Russian and Chinese ships, this is an exaggeration, given our assessments for the region" – Jonson said in a Thursday interview with "The Telegraph", what the British paper called the first expression of a high-ranking NATO figure who openly questions Trump's rhetoric.
Speaking specifically of Chinese Arctic activity, he called it ‘limited’ and ‘mostly concentrated on investigation ships’.
The interview took place after a visit to the United States by Danish abroad Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandese abroad Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, after which Europeans admitted ‘fundamental dispute’ With Washington on island security.
“It is not actual that we have Chinese warships everywhere – according to our intelligence we have not had Chinese warships in Greenland for about a decade” – told Rasmussen journalists after talking to high-ranking U.S. officials.
Trump mocked the Danish defence of Greenland repeatedly, calling it ‘two dog teams’, unable to defy a real attack.
On Wednesday, Denmark announced military exercises in Greenland, in which additional troops will be deployed.
respective European countries, including Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom, declared their participation by sending from 1 to 15 soldiers each.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Pieksov called the situation "extraordinary for global law’, which, however, is not surprising, given Trump's public statements that he is not curious in this aspect.
He added that Moscow is observing developments.
Translated by Google Translator
source:https://www.rt.com/news/6310336-sweden-greenland-treat-trump/
