Editor’s Note: This is a corrected story from The Canadian Press. The previous story referred to Greenland’s sovereignty, but Greenland is a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand affirmed support for Denmark, as Washington again says it wants to annex the country’s self-governing territory of Greenland.
Anand spoke Tuesday with her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and she wrote on social media that she conveyed to him “Canada’s support for the fundamental importance of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
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Her comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump appointed an envoy to the territory, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who said the job aims “to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
Landry later said Tuesday the U.S. is not “trying to conquer anybody” or to “to take over anybody’s country.”
Anand plans to visit the Greenland community of Nuuk to open a consulate early next year, and says Denmark is a major partner of Canada through the Arctic Council and the NATO defence alliance.
Earlier this month, Anand said she urged NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to have the alliance focus more on the north during a meeting a in Brussels.
“Canada’s exported our defence and military spending over two world wars to Europe. It is time for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to focus as well on the North Atlantic and the Arctic,” she told the Canadian Club in Toronto on Dec. 12.
“We need to address these threats, and we need to address them together.”
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