Jan 11 (Reuters) – Nordic diplomats rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of Russian and Chinese vessels operating near Greenland, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
There have been no signs of Russian or Chinese ships or submarines around Greenland in recent years, the FT said, citing two senior Nordic diplomats with access to NATO intelligence briefings.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House and NATO did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
“It is simply not true that the Chinese and Russians are there. I have seen the intelligence. There are no ships, no submarines,” the FT quoted one senior diplomat as saying.
Another Nordic diplomat said claims that waters around Greenland were “crawling” with Russian and Chinese vessels were unfounded, adding that such activity was on the Russian side of the Arctic.
Trump has repeatedly said Russian and Chinese vessels are operating near Greenland, a claim Denmark disputes. He has not provided evidence to support it.
Trump said on Friday the U.S. must own Greenland, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from occupying the strategically located and mineral-rich territory.
“The image that’s being painted of Russian and Chinese ships right inside the Nuuk fjord and massive Chinese investments being made is not correct,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said earlier this week.
Vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic and LSEG show no Chinese or Russian ship presence near Greenland.
Greenland’s assembly said late on Friday it would bring forward a meeting to discuss its response to U.S. threats to take control of the island.
Trump’s renewed push for Greenland, after U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, worries many of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants, whose widely held goal is to eventually become an independent nation.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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