Denmark says international order cannot be dictated by whims of big countries

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Tuesday that there cannot be a world order where big countries can have things on their own way, one day after newly inaugurated President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to take Greenland under US sovereignty on the grounds of national security.

“Of course, we cannot have a world order where countries, if they are big enough - regardless of what they are called - can just go their own way,” Rasmussen told reporters.

He said the fact that Trump did not mention Greenland in his inauguration address does not take the intensity out of the issue.

“It does not make me blow off any crisis because he said other things about expanding the American territory,” he said. “The statements made by the US president in the Oval Office afterward mean that the government still views the situation with deep, deep seriousness,” referring to Denmark.

The foreign minister chose to refrain from commenting on Trump’s choice of words in the Oval Office about Greenland. “The rhetoric in the Oval Office is the same as it has been before, but I am also satisfied that it was not part of the speech. This is positive.”

“After all, there is a difference between what is said in an inauguration speech and what is binding and what is the answer to questions raised by journalists,” he said.