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Sir Keir Starmer has warned Donald Trump that the future of Greenland must be decided by the people of the Arctic island and Denmark and not the US, in his first call to the White House since the US president’s intervention in Venezuela.
The UK prime minister had been criticised by political opponents for failing to speak to Trump since the president unleashed a wave of global uncertainty with his attack on Venezuela on Saturday and his renewed warnings that the US wanted to take control of Greenland.
But on Wednesday evening, Starmer eventually spoke to Trump, in what was likely to have been a strained conversation between the two leaders who normally have warm relations.
Downing Street said the call included discussion of the US-led operation to intercept a Russian oil tanker in the north Atlantic, in which British forces and bases were involved, and the US operation in Venezuela.
It added in a very brief statement after the conversation with Trump: “The prime minister also set out his position on Greenland.”
While Starmer has broadly supported Trump’s intervention in Venezuela and the removal of former president Nicolás Maduro, his position on Greenland has been much more robust, in line with that of other European leaders.
He said earlier this week: “Denmark is a close ally in Europe, is a Nato ally and it is very important that the future of Greenland is for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland themselves and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader and normally a defender of Trump, also declared that “the sovereignty of Greenland is sacrosanct”.
She chided Starmer over his failure to speak to Trump in recent days, despite Downing Street’s hopes of an earlier conversation. “I also note that the prime minister has still not had a call with President Trump,” she said. “That is concerning, four days after the events in Venezuela.”
However, Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former US ambassador, has urged European leaders to accept the harsh reality of the “Age of Trump” and decried their “histrionics” over the White House’s threats towards Greenland.
“Europe’s growing geopolitical impotence in the world is becoming the issue now, and histrionics about Greenland is confirming this brutal reality,” Mandelson wrote in the Spectator on Wednesday.
Mandelson, who was sacked last September over his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said: “The future of Greenland is being misunderstood. Trump is not going to ‘invade’ it. He doesn’t need to. He’s already there.”
He added: “What will happen is that the threats to Arctic security posed by China and Russia will crystallise in European minds, performative statements about ‘sovereignty’ and Nato’s future will fade, and serious discussion will take over.”
“Together, the US, Denmark and other allies will address how the Arctic region is properly secured with a considerably beefed-up role and status and military deployment by America,” he wrote.
Mandelson added: “Britain’s interests and those of other liberal democracies lie in how we harness the power of the US to continue safeguarding the principles — if not always the letter — of the UN Charter.”
On Wednesday evening, UK defence secretary John Healey said Britain supported the US operation against the tanker Marinera as a means of enforcing Iran sanctions and tackling “the global security threat posed by expanding shadowy maritime activity”.
He told the House of Commons: “This is a sanctioned, stateless vessel which carries a long history of nefarious activity and shares close links with both Iran and Russia.”
The UK Ministry of Defence said Britain had provided “operational support, including basing” and air surveillance support in the operation, following a request from the US for assistance.
