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Danish PM ‘not embarrassed’ prior to Trump Nato meeting

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has declared herself calm before meeting US president Donald Trump at the ongoing Nato summit in the United Kingdom.

Published: 4 December 2019 17:07 CET

Danish PM 'not embarrassed' prior to Trump Nato meeting

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

Trump is not shy of taking a confrontational tone when he meets leaders of Nato allies who he says do not spend enough money on defence.

“I am not at all embarrassed [with regard to Nato spending, ed.], and no one in Denmark has any reason to be,” Frederiksen said on her way to the NATO summit in Watford north of London.

Denmark is among the two-thirds of Nato countries that do not spend two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, the stated mutual goal for Nato member states since 2014.

The Scandinavian country currently spends 1.32 per cent of its GDP on defence, although the figure is rising, Ritzau reports.

Meanwhile, Denmark is regularly at the front of the queue when it comes to providing forces to participate in international missions.

The two government leaders had a well-documented diplomatic clash earlier this year, when Trump cancelled a state visit to Denmark.

Prior to the scheduled visit, Trump suggested that the United States buy Greenland, a self-governing part of Denmark. The proposal was rejected by both Denmark and Greenland

Frederiksen called the debate about a sale “absurd”. Trump retaliated, calling the Prime Minister's comment “nasty.”

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The two later met in New York, and the relationship is good, Frederiksen stressed on Wednesday.

“We have a really good relationship. Yes, some words can get out there, but the important thing is to count on each other and trust each other,” the PM said.

“In my opinion, the United States is our most important ally. We need to talk about foreign and security policy and to confirm our good mutual relationship. That's the decisive factor,” she said.

Prior to the Nato summit, the government has presented a plan for Denmark to spend 1.5 billion kroner on increased air and marine surveillance in the Arctic region.

Russian submarine activity and superpower rivalry are amongst regional issues which concern Denmark.

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Denmark's government said on Tuesday it could not recover text messages requested by an official commission in relation to an ongoing inquiry. The timing, hours after local elections, was strongly criticised by opposition lawmakers.

Denmark's government said on Tuesday it could not recover text messages requested by an official commission in relation to an ongoing inquiry. The timing, hours after local elections, was strongly criticised by opposition lawmakers. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

As such, an official inquiry currently scrutinising the decision last year to cull millions of fur farm mink will not have insight into key government communication relating to the controversial decision.

The PM has faced questions over a policy to automatically delete texts after 30 days, a practice not universally applied across government ministries.

“It has only been possible for police technicians to recreate a limited amount of SMS messages from the devices of justice ministry heads of department,” justice minister Nick Hækkerup said in the statement.

READ ALSO: Why are Danish PM Frederiksen’s deleted mink texts causing controversy?

The timing of the announcement, less than 24 hours after local elections, drew immediate criticism from opposition parties.

The Ministry of Justice received the material needed for analysis of the devices on Friday last week, news wire Ritzau reports.

Justice spokesperson Morten Dahlin of the opposition Liberal party said it was “easy to assume” that the government held back the announcement to avoid a negative impact for the Social Democrats in local elections.

READ ALSO: How damaging is local election result for Danish PM Frederiksen?

“It’s foul play not to go public with this information when it was received, but instead choose to keep it back. And you can only speculate about whether this is because the information wasn’t allowed to come out before the municipal elections,” Dahlin said.

The Liberal representative stressed that his party has “no confidence” in the government’s response to the controversy over the mink texts.

Hækkerup rejected the suggestion by the Liberals that the government had deliberately withheld information until after the election.

“That is simply not true. The process was that we in the Ministry of Justice received the material in sealed envelopes on Friday. We agreed on Monday with the Mink Commission [official inquiry, ed.] that we should meet with the commission and its assistants which was to have the material and review it with their clients. So it’s a process that was agreed with the Mink Commission,” Hækkerup said.

The minister’s comment was in turn rejected by his opposition counterpart.

“The explanation that the information was stored in sealed envelopes, which were coincidentally not opened before the municipal elections, is ridiculous,” Dahlin said.

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