Iceland has summoned the US ambassador after President Donald Trump posted an image of an American flag superimposed over the island, with the Icelandic government telling the envoy the post was ‘entirely inappropriate.’
Iceland summons US ambassador: what happened at the meeting
Iceland’s Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir called in US ambassador Billy Long following Trump’s social media post. Long formally took up his post last month, according to local media.
When an ambassador is summoned, it typically signals a formal meeting at which the host country expresses displeasure over its government’s actions. 13 WHAM reported that the Icelandic Foreign Ministry said officials had ‘made clear at the meeting’ with Long ‘that the post was entirely inappropriate.’
Trump’s post carried no caption and came shortly before a series of further posts featuring maps renaming the US state of New Mexico as ‘New America.’
Greenland investment and diplomatic reaction
The post appeared shortly after the European Commission announced a €200m (£172m) investment in Greenland, a Danish territory, during a visit by Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The European Commission said the investment would focus on education, internet connectivity, raw materials and hydropower energy.
Frederiksen responded directly to Trump’s post. ‘The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American,’ she told Danish news agency Ritzau in Nuuk. ‘I hope no one is in any doubt about that, either in the United States or the rest of the world.’
Trump’s interest in Greenland has been a recurring theme on his social media accounts and in speeches since he took office again, with the president claiming the island is necessary to shore up US national security.
His territorial ambitions have also strained relations with Canada, where he has repeatedly called for the country to become America’s 51st state, and with Mexico, where he has pushed to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s map posts by saying Mexico ‘is neither nor will be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country.’ ‘Proudly we are a free, independent, and sovereign nation,’ she wrote on social media.
The summoning of the US ambassador by Iceland marks one of the more direct diplomatic responses yet to Trump’s posts about territory in the North Atlantic region. The Foreign Ministry’s confirmation that Long was told the post was ‘entirely inappropriate’ leaves little ambiguity about Reykjavik’s position.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has been a recurring point of tension with both Copenhagen and Nuuk since he returned to office, with Frederiksen and Greenlandic officials repeatedly stating the territory’s future is not Washington’s to decide.
