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Canberra Woos New Delhi Over Wine And Cheese
Australia is seeking to conclude the pending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)—an expanded version of the 2022 Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA)—with India at the earliest. Canberra is pushing for greater access to Indian markets for agricultural products and wine through reduced tariffs.
“Since coming to this job, just over three years ago, I have established a very good relationship with the Indian Trade Minister, Piyush Goyal. We talk regularly, and we meet on many occasions around the world, and I consider him a friend. In fact, on his last visit to Australia, he came and visited my vineyard in the Clare Valley in South Australia,” Don Farrell, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, told StratNewsGlobal.
Under CECA, negotiations for which are underway, Australia is seeking enhanced market access for wines and dairy products under a reduced tariff regime. India, however, has been resisting such moves.
The ECTA, which came into effect in December 2022, already covers wines and spirits. It reduced India’s tariffs on Australian bottled wine from 150% to 50% for bottles over $5, and to 25% for bottles over $15, phased in over nine years.
Canberra now wants steeper tariff cuts under CECA. To support this, an Australia-India Joint Dialogue on Wine has been established to facilitate cooperation and information exchange between government and industry representatives.
“India is now the world’s largest country by population and thanks to the policies of the current government, living standards are very quickly improving. My understanding is that by 2030, you’ll have something in the vicinity of 900 million people in the middle class,” said Farrell.
“As people’s living standards increase, their demand for high-quality food and wine also increases. We see fantastic opportunities for Australia, which has a wonderful, clean and green image for its agricultural products, to supply much of the food and wine into India,” he added.
Taking a swipe at the United States and President Donald Trump’s trade tirades, Farrell—without naming the country—said this is the time to secure robust trade deals, and that protectionism is not a viable path.
He stressed that India and Australia “need to demonstrate to the rest of the world that protectionism is not the way to improve the prosperity of populations. It’s free and fair trade that will get you to that point.”
Farrell also said India and Australia are on the “cusp of a golden era” and need to deepen engagement by doing more business and investing in each other’s economies.
On the Adani Group’s Carmichael coal project in Queensland, Farrell said the Australian government “supports” the mining activities there. “It has been a very successful mining operation and to the best of my knowledge, I’ve not been aware of any difficulties with that particular mine,” he said.
The Carmichael Project is a large-scale thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, Queensland, developed by Adani Group under Bravus Mining and Resources, with an investment of $17 billion.
“We do a two-way investment, so it’s not just us providing investment into India. We want to see more investment from Indian companies,” said Farrell, adding that Canberra is seeking Indian investment in critical minerals and rare-earth mining.
On challenges faced by Australian companies in India, Farrell said: “I think the biggest challenge is that like in Australia, you’ve got a federal structure. You can reach agreements on how the federal structure might work, but then you have states that have additional rules and regulations which you have to comply with.”
“Australian companies understand the rules and how to work through the system. You’ve got to be a bit persistent. From an Australian company point of view, what I would say to them is you can get advice about the challenges, but you’re going to have to devote some resources to getting your foot in the door,” he added.
Israel Intensifies Strikes Across Gaza City, Kills 16, Medics Report
Israeli forces carried out heavy strikes across Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 16 Palestinians and injuring dozens more in the southern part of the enclave, according to local health officials. Residents said the bombardment was especially fierce in neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City.
The military is preparing to take Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre, despite international calls on Israel to reconsider this over fears that the operation would cause significant casualties and displace the roughly one million Palestinians sheltering there.
In Gaza City, residents said families were fleeing their homes, with most heading towards the coast, as Israel forces bombarded the eastern suburbs of Shejaia, Zeitoun, and Sabra. Thursday’s deaths took to 71 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
Israel officials describe Gaza City as the last stronghold of Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel. The Islamist terrorist group has since been decimated by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing to operate throughout Gaza targeting what it described as “terrorist organizations” and infrastructure.
The military had killed three terrorists in the past day, it said, without saying how they had identified the individuals.
Four Dead, Dozens Wounded In Southern Gaza
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that 31 “weapon-wounded” patients, most with gunshot wounds, were admitted to the Red Cross Field Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Four of them were declared dead on arrival.
“Patients said they were injured while trying to reach food distribution sites,” the spokesperson said, adding that since the food distribution sites began operations on May 27, the hospital had treated over 5,000 “weapon-wounded patients”.
Dozens of Palestinians were admitted to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis with gunshot wounds, according to a doctor there who said the military had opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians that had gathered near an aid distribution site.
Mohammad Saqer, the head of nursing, said most of the patients had been admitted with gunshot wounds to the upper parts of the body and that many were in critical condition.
The patients had reported they were shot as they sought to collect food from a distribution site in Rafah, he said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The war broke out when Hamas-led terrorists launched a surprise, cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have since been released through diplomatic negotiations, though 50 remain, of whom 20 are said to be alive.
Israel has not responded publicly to Hamas’ acceptance of a proposal for a ceasefire that would allow for the return of some of the hostages. Israeli officials have, however, insisted that it would only accept a deal that sees all of the hostages released and Hamas’ surrender.
Deaths From Starvation
Israel’s military campaign, which it says is directed toward Gaza’s rulers Hamas, has devastated the territory and displaced most of the roughly two million Palestinians there.
More than 62,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed by the Israeli military, according to local health officials, who have not said how many combatants have been killed in the fighting.
With the enclave in the grips of a humanitarian crisis, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that four more people, including two children, had died of malnutrition and starvation in the enclave, raising deaths from such causes to 317 people, including 121 children, since the war started.
Israel disputes the health ministry’s fatality figures and on Wednesday asked a global hunger monitor to retract an assessment that found that Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from famine.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Chicago Braces For Trump’s Potential National Guard Deployment
Earlier this month, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops and ICE agents to Chicago, Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker asserted the president lacked the legal authority.
But privately, Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson began discussing what they could do to shield Chicago from a federal deployment like those underway in two other Democrat-run cities with Black mayors, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Their conclusion: not much.
As Trump has amped up the threat of a federal deployment in the nation’s third-largest city in recent days, public officials and community organisers said they are doing what they can to get ready, however.
The offices of Pritzker and Johnson are closely coordinating. The state’s attorney general, Kwame Raoul, said on Monday he was developing a legal strategy to execute if troops arrived. Immigrant advocates are stepping up legal training.
While some locals have expressed support for Trump’s decision, many in the heavily Democratic-voting city are appalled.
Some community group leaders who work in Chicago neighbourhoods most affected by violent crime said the presence of National Guard troops could undermine efforts to build trust.
“To bring individuals with no relationships and really no training, to create an antagonistic relationship between local law enforcement and those federal agencies, is taking us 20 steps backwards,” said Reneé Hall, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
On Monday, Pritzker spoke on the riverfront in downtown Chicago, flanked by Johnson and the state’s most powerful Democrats.
“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” he said.
Chicago Crime
Trump has justified his decision by painting a bleak picture of crime in Chicago, calling it a “disaster.” Illinois Republicans have echoed that description, and are increasingly speaking up in support of Trump’s pledged intervention.
Families “need leaders who will finally make Chicago safe,” state Senator Neil Anderson said in a statement to Reuters.
Chicago has long had a reputation as a city with an elevated crime rate, particularly around gun violence. There have been 1,229 shootings so far this year, including a high-profile drive-by shooting in July targeting a rap artist.
However, the city has made marked progress since the end of the pandemic, according to Chicago crime data. Fatal shootings fell 36% from January 1 through August 25 compared to the same period a year ago. Its July homicide rate of 1.66 per 100,000 residents ranks it below Washington, New Orleans, Kansas City and Little Rock, Arkansas, among other cities.
The falling crime trend mirrors other U.S. cities, reflecting the impact of hundreds of millions of federal dollars allocated in recent years for teachers, police and social workers – the people likely to influence at-risk youth most vulnerable to gun violence, said John Roman, a senior fellow at the research organisation NORC at the University of Chicago.
Some of those funds, including $158 million in grants for violence prevention programmes across the U.S., were cut in April as part of the Trump administration’s reshaping of government.
The federal funding cuts demonstrate that Trump’s pledge to tackle crime in Chicago is “performative” and not his actual goal, said Arne Duncan, former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education and founder of community violence prevention nonprofit Chicago CRED.
Sending the National Guard, Duncan said, “harkens back to Klan patrols — that’s the imagery he wants and it’s incredibly disturbing. He wants these military clashes with civilians.”
However, the perception among outsiders and even many Chicagoans is that safety remains a serious issue. In a NORC survey this spring of city residents, about half said they felt unsafe in their neighbourhoods at night.
Joleen Reese, an unemployed mother of four on Chicago’s South Side, said she feels “relatively safe,” but takes care to keep her children in at night. She said that deploying federal troops was “not called for,” and that she would prefer that Trump focus on job creation.
But Mike Wyatt, an IT worker in Chicago’s Loop, said he would welcome assistance addressing homelessness and empty storefronts downtown.
“We need some help,” he said.
Sanctuary City
Trump has also singled out Chicago because of its so-called sanctuary city status for immigrants. From 2022, waves of migrants began arriving in Chicago from the border, mostly on buses sent by officials in Texas and other southern states. By last summer, the city had placed about 46,000 migrants in shelters.
South Side resident Danielle Carter-Walters, a spokesperson for the pro-Trump group Chicago Flips Red, testified at a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing in April that Chicago was “drowning with the consequences” of its sanctuary city status.
That spurred Trump to say that Black Chicagoans had told him, “come to Chicago, please.”
The potential deployment of troops and ICE agents has sparked a wave of trepidation among immigrants, with even permanent residents and citizens with Latino heritage fearing a mistaken detention, said Eréndira Rendón, vice president of Immigrant Justice at The Resurrection Project.
This week, the group was scrambling to train its immigration lawyers in deportation litigation methods and to hire more.
“We’re preparing for an escalation in enforcement and scare tactics,” she said.
The National Guard has been sent to Chicago before, but that involved coordination with local officials. Although Trump has indicated that he does not need to receive any formal request, his power to send in troops is limited under U.S. law, and his actions in Los Angeles earlier this summer are still being litigated. There are no restrictions on the deployment of federal law enforcement officers, such as ICE agents, however.
City and state lawyers will likely argue that deploying the National Guard to Chicago would violate the U.S. Constitution and a 19th-century law that bars the military from civil law enforcement, said University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman.
“A fundamental legal principle is we don’t turn our military on its own citizens,” Futterman said.
Denise Poloyac, a board member for the Chicago chapter of protest organisation Indivisible, said that a large federal presence would be met with nonviolent protest. Such a move by Trump, she said, would be a sign of growing authoritarianism intended to spark fear among Chicagoans.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” she said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Philippines Open To Talks With China On Filipino Safety In Taiwan: Foreign Minister
The Philippines‘ Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro on Thursday expressed willingness to hold discussions with China on measures to protect Filipinos living in Taiwan amid escalating Taiwan Strait tensions.
Speaking at a Senate hearing, Lazaro was asked whether the Philippines could seek Beijing’s help in evacuating close to 200,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan if conflict breaks out.
“We can do that,” she replied, adding, “It’s about time to also come up with these discussions.”
Her remarks followed a warning from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier this month that the Philippines would inevitably be drawn into a conflict between China and Taiwan should one erupt, due to its proximity to the democratically governed island.
Lazaro and other officials told senators that contingency measures are already in place to assist and evacuate Filipinos in the event of a war.
“We have been talking since early this year about a contingency plan, with security agencies,” Lazaro said.
Over the past five years, Taiwan has come under increasing military and political pressure from China, which views the island as its “sacred” territory. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lazaro’s remarks.
Taiwanese Assurance
Cheloy Garafil, head of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, said Taiwan had given assurances it would support the Philippines in protecting overseas workers.
“We have already obtained a commitment from the Taiwanese officials that they will help us in case trouble erupts,” she said.
Lazaro reiterated that the Philippines upholds its “one China” policy and “will leave it to the Chinese people to resolve cross-strait issues.”
“We do not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state,” she added.
Earlier this year, the Philippines eased long-standing restrictions on official travel to Taiwan, allowing government officials to make economic and trade-related visits under certain conditions. The guidelines for receiving Taiwanese delegations were also relaxed.
Garafil said a large Taiwanese business delegation, including major semiconductor and agricultural companies, is currently in the Philippines.
“We’ve never seen this kind of a big delegation in history. We’re just very glad they are here and they are interested in the Philippines,” she told reporters.
(With inputs from Reuters)
GST 2.0: India’s Second Tryst With Tax Reform
Eight years ago, India rolled out its biggest ever tax reform: the Goods and Services Tax. This marquee tax reform collapsed 36 tax jurisdictions and subsumed 17 to productionise the idea of ‘One Nation, One Tax’. As a result, tor the first time, the country was economically unified.
But the journey since, has been anything but smooth. Creeping acquisition of control by ‘baburaj’ and the consequent introduction of complexity and compliance headaches, have undermined the initial idea. Political brinksmanship only made a bad idea worse.
Belatedly, India is gearing up for GST 2.0. This reboot promises to rationalise rates, simplify procedures, and enable the soft touch in regulation. In the process it seeks to restore trust with citizens and in the idea of cooperative federalism.
Can GST 2.0 deliver on this huge ask? To unpack the promise, pitfalls and possibilities, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to economist and former Finance Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Haseeb Drabu. He was also part of the team of FMs who founded GST.
French Finance Minister Dismisses Financial Crisis Fears Despite Political Turmoil
Finance Minister Eric Lombard said on Thursday he saw no risk of a financial crisis in France, aiming to reassure investors as the government faces a likely confidence vote defeat next month.
French bonds and stocks took a beating on markets earlier this week as Prime Minister Francois Bayrou surprised everyone on Monday by announcing the confidence vote over his plans for sweeping budget cuts.
Bayrou will focus the vote on the need to put the country’s finances back on track as he tries to get approval for his budget plans.
Lombard himself talked earlier this week of a potential risk of needing the International Monetary Fund to step in if France did not put its finances in order.
However, Lombard adopted a more reassuring tone on Thursday.
French Economy Remains Stable
“I don’t believe in a financial crisis,” he told a gathering of France’s MEDEF business lobby group. “The country is rich, the country is growing, the country is managed, it is under control, and France’s businesses are doing their job,” he said.
“We have no difficulty financing our economy,” he added, adding that the public deficit would be cut to 5.4% of gross domestic product by the end of the year, as planned.
Opposition parties have said they will bring down the minority government in the September 8 confidence vote.
Business leaders told the same conference on Wednesday that the political crisis carried heavy risks for the economy.
Opinion polls conducted after Bayrou’s announcement show most French people now want new parliamentary and presidential elections, pointing to deepening dissatisfaction with politics and a risk of lasting uncertainty.
According to the opinion polls released on Wednesday, two-thirds of people surveyed in two of the three polls also wanted President Emmanuel Macron to resign, and the far-right National Rally (RN) got the most backing to lead the next government in one poll, although not a majority.
The polling points to a deepening of the uncertainty and dissatisfaction with politics in a country that has had only minority cabinets and fragmented parliaments since Macron’s re-election in 2022.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Putin, Kim To Attend Beijing Military Parade In Defiant Display Against Western Pressure
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un are set to attend a military parade in Beijing, representing the first joint public appearance of the two leaders alongside President Xi Jinping in a demonstration of collective defiance under mounting Western pressure.
No Western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week, with the exception of Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, a European Union member state, according to the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday.
Against the backdrop of China’s growing military might during the “Victory Day” parade on September 3, the three leaders will project a major show of solidarity not just between China and the Global South, but also with sanctions-hit Russia and North Korea.
Sanctioned Allies Stand Together
Russia, which Beijing counts as a strategic partner, has been battered by multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its economy on the brink of slipping into recession. Putin, wanted by the International Criminal Court, last travelled in China in 2024.
North Korea, a formal treaty ally of China’s, has been under United Nations Security Council sanctions since 2006 over its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim last visited China in January 2019.
Those attending the parade marking the formal surrender of Japan during World War II will include Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Iran’s President Masoud Pezashkian, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei at a news conference.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic will also attend the parade.
The United Nations will be represented by Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua, who previously served in various capacities at the Chinese foreign ministry, including time as the Chinese ambassador to Italy, San Marino and Myanmar.
On the day, President Xi Jinping will survey tens of thousands of troops at Tiananmen Square alongside the foreign dignitaries and senior Chinese leaders.
The highly choreographed parade, to be one of China’s largest in years, will showcase cutting-edge equipment like fighter jets, missile defence systems and hypersonic weapons.
(With inputs from Reuters)
EU’s Kyiv Office Hit In Russian Drone Strike, Commission Says
The European Commission said on Thursday that Russia’s overnight drone and missile assault on Kyiv damaged the EU delegation’s building in Ukraine’s capital.
The delegation’s staff were safe, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. She called on Russia to stop its “indiscriminatory attacks on civilian infrastructure and join negotiations for a just and lasting peace”.
Fatalities Reported
The Russian attack killed 10 people in other parts of the city, wounded 38 and damaged buildings across seven districts, Ukrainian officials said.
Explosions lit up the night sky in the capital during the air alert, which lasted for over nine hours, with clouds of smoke covering the sky as drones buzzed overhead.
EU Commissioner Marta Kos said the EU building had been damaged during strikes on civilian areas.
“I strongly condemn these brutal attacks, a clear sign that Russia rejects peace and chooses terror. Our full solidarity goes to EU staff, their families, and all Ukrainians enduring this aggression.”
Zelenskyy Responds
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack, which also killed a child, showed the world Russia’s answer to diplomacy amid efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy said on X, calling for new sanctions on Russia. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.”
Ukrainian air force said it downed 563 of 598 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia in a country-wide attack.
The Air Force recorded hits at 13 locations and debris falling at 26 locations.
“Unfortunately, the Russians’ style is typical in their attacks,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
“Combined strikes, from different directions. And systematic, targeting ordinary residential buildings.”
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has stepped up air strikes in recent months on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front lines of the war.
Ukrainian officials listed numerous buildings that had suffered damage, including several high-rise apartment blocks.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Europeans Set To Launch UN Sanctions Process On Iran, Diplomats Say
Britain, France, and Germany are set to initiate the procedure of reimposing United Nations sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council on Thursday, according to two European diplomats.
The trio, known as the E3, met Iran on Tuesday to try to revive diplomacy over the nuclear programme before they lose the ability in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.
Those talks did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran. The E3 have now decided to trigger the so-called snapback of UN sanctions over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, the diplomats said.
The E3, whose ministers informed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of their decision on Wednesday, will transfer a letter to the UN Security Council later on Thursday.
They hope the move will push Tehran to provide commitments over its nuclear programme within 30 days that will convince them to defer concrete action.
‘Harsh Response’
Iran has previously warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reinstated. Talks between the E3 and Iran are tense as Tehran is furious at the bombing in June of its nuclear facilities by the U.S. and Israel.
The UN process takes 30 days before sanctions that would cover Iran’s financial, banking, hydrocarbons and defence sectors are restored.
The E3 had offered to delay the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran resumes full UN inspections – which would also seek to account for Iran’s large stock of enriched uranium that has not been verified since the June strikes – and engages in talks with the United States.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television on Wednesday night that if snapback was triggered, interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency would be “completely affected and halted.”
“We have told the E3 that if this happens, Europe will, in effect, remove itself from the diplomatic arena and dialogue with Iran,” he said, adding that Iran would then only hold discussions within a UN Security Council framework.
Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, and had enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for six nuclear weapons, before the strikes by Israel started on June 13, according to the IAEA.
Actually producing a weapon would take more time, however, and the IAEA has said that while it cannot guarantee Tehran’s nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, it has no credible indication of a coordinated weapons project.
The West says the advancement of Iran’s nuclear programme goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.
(With inputs from Reuters)
US Backs Greenland’s Right To Self-Determination Amid Political Influence Claims
The top U.S. diplomat in Denmark reaffirmed Greenland’s right to decide its future after Danish intelligence alleged private Americans sought to influence the Arctic territory’s politics.
Chargé d’Affaires Mark Stroh met with Danish and Greenlandic officials in Copenhagen on Wednesday. Denmark summoned him in response to a report by public broadcaster DR, saying at least three Americans with ties to President Donald Trump were suspected of promoting opposition to Danish rule in an effort to encourage Greenland’s secession.
‘Provocative Conversation’
The U.S. State Department said in an emailed statement late on Wednesday that Stroh had a “productive conversation” and reiterated Washington’s commitment to strong ties with both Denmark and Greenland.
“The United States respects the right of the people of Greenland to determine their own future,” the State Department said.
It added that the U.S. government does not control or direct the actions of private citizens and declined to comment on intelligence matters.
Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, holds the right to declare independence.
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring Greenland for strategic reasons and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve that goal.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen commented to DR: “We are a partner, we are an ally, and we expect that the diplomatic rules of the game will apply. We expect that international law and sovereignty will be respected.”
US Ambitions
A March general election in Greenland – a former colony but now a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark – saw a pro-business party advocating a gradual independence process secure victory.
Meanwhile, a party favouring rapid independence from Denmark and closer ties with the U.S. garnered a quarter of the vote, highlighting growing momentum for independence.
Seeking to counterbalance U.S. ambitions in the region, Denmark has been trying to improve strained relations with Greenland, rallying European allies for support.
While Trump has also since expressed respect for Greenland’s right to determine its own future, his comments about potentially taking the territory by force have fuelled uncertainty among its 57,000 inhabitants.
“The United States should not be allowed to influence our future in this way. It is solely up to the Greenlandic people,” Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, told Reuters.
Suspected Influence Operations
Chemnitz said she believed the suspected influence operations were part of Trump’s broader campaign seeking to gain control of the territory.
“I definitely think that this links back to the U.S. government,” Chemnitz said.
Denmark’s national security and intelligence service, PET, warned in a statement that Greenland remains a target for influence campaigns that could aim to exploit disagreements or promote specific views about both Denmark and the United States.
Trump has picked PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as U.S. ambassador to Denmark, but the U.S. mission in Copenhagen is currently led by Charge d’affaires Mark Stroh, its website says.
(With inputs from Reuters)