U.S. President Donald Trump said he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, alleging that many individuals there are sick and never receiving care, regardless that each of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships are currently docked at a shipyard in Alabama.
Trump’s announcement prompted a defence on Sunday of Denmark and Greenland’s health-care system from their leaders, and it was the newest point of friction with the American leader, who has ceaselessly talked about seizing the huge Arctic territory.
“It’s a no thanks from here,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Trump’s social media post a few hospital ship got here after Denmark’s military said its Arctic command forces on Saturday evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine off the coast of Greenland for urgent medical treatment.
The Danish Joint Arctic Command, on its Facebook page, said the crew member was evacuated some 7 nautical miles (13 kilometres) off Nuuk — the capital of the vast, ice-covered territory — and transferred to a hospital in town. The crew member was retrieved by a Danish Seahawk helicopter that had been deployed on an inspection ship.
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Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday night, referred to his special envoy for Greenland and said, “Working with the improbable Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we’re going to send an incredible hospital boat to Greenland to deal with the numerous people who find themselves sick, and never being taken care of there. It’s on the best way!!!”
FILE – USNS Mercy docks on the Port of Los Angeles, Friday, March 27, 2020, in Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Nielsen said it wasn’t obligatory.
“We have now a public health-care system where treatment is free for residents. That could be a deliberate selection — and a fundamental a part of our society,” Nielsen said. “That is just not how it really works within the USA, where it costs money to see a physician.”
He added, in a note of exasperation, that Greenland is at all times open to dialogue and cooperation. “But please talk over with us as an alternative of just making roughly random statements on social media,” he said.
Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, talking to public broadcaster DR, said Danish authorities had not been informed that the U.S. ship was on its way.
The Pentagon referred questions on the status of the U.S. Navy’s two hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, to the White House. The White House didn’t immediately reply to repeated requests for more information.
Each ships are currently at a shipyard in Mobile, Ala., in accordance with social media posts from the shipyard, which also posted photos of them next to one another.
When asked in regards to the status of the ships and the president’s post, the Navy referred inquiries to the White House.
The historically strong bilateral ties after World War II between NATO allies Denmark and the US have come under severe strain in recent months as Trump ratcheted up talk of a possible U.S. takeover of the mineral-rich and strategically situated Arctic island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen defended Denmark’s health-care system on Sunday, writing on Facebook that she was “completely satisfied to live in a rustic where there may be free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.”
“You’ve gotten the identical approach in Greenland,” she said, before adding: “Pleased Sunday to you all” in front of a blushing, smiling emoji.
Aaja Chemnitz, one in all the 2 Greenlandic politicians within the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook that “Donald Trump desires to send a poorly maintained hospital ship to Greenland. It seems somewhat desperate and doesn’t contribute to the everlasting and sustainable strengthening of the health care system that we want.”
“One other day. One other crazy news story,” she wrote in front of a smiley face emoji.
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