Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Role at the time: Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs and political leader of Moderaterne, in a post on his own Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles (his X and Instagram bios say the profiles are not kept in his ministerial capacity)
Statement summary
In a Danish-language post on his social media profiles, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen wrote that next week could be a good week for Greenland, Denmark and the USA, and that a long period of uncertainty would hopefully be replaced by a binding agreement strengthening security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, with respect for the Kingdom's red lines. The quotation is DI's English translation of the Danish original.
“Next week could be a good week… For Greenland, Denmark and the USA alike. Where a long period of uncertainty is hopefully replaced by a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic and thus also our shared security in NATO and Europe - with respect for the Kingdom's red lines.”
Opened directly; page metadata and JSON-LD give author Lars Løkke Rasmussen, datePublished 2026-09-19T08:14:20.919Z and the post text, and the Danish original below was checked as one contiguous span of that text. The same text is on his Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles; TV 2 saw the Instagram version by 07:43 UTC, so this LinkedIn copy is a later cross-post. The quotation is DI's English translation. Original Danish: 'Næste uge kan blive en god uge… For både Grønland, Danmark og USA. Hvor lang tids usikkerhed forhåbentlig erstattes af en bindende aftale, der styrker sikkerheden i Arktis og Nordatlanten og dermed også vores fælles sikkerhed i NATO og Europa - med respekt for Kongerigets røde linjer.' The posted text reads 'Hvor lang tids usikkerhed' (apparently 'Hvor' as a relative adverb continuing 'a good week'); it is translated as 'Where a long period of uncertainty ...'. The post ends with one more sentence, not quoted.
Why we used this label
The case's fixed reference point is President Trump's description, in his Truth Social post of 2026-09-18, of the not-yet-signed, unpublished U.S.-Denmark-Greenland agreement as giving the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland. Løkke Rasmussen welcomes the prospect of a binding agreement that strengthens Arctic and North Atlantic security, but he words it as a hope ('hopefully') and makes it 'with respect for the Kingdom's red lines', and he does not mention Trump's description. The closest competing label is defends_or_excuses, because he welcomes the prospective agreement. That loses because his welcome is hedged and tied to the red-lines condition, and he does not affirm Trump's description of permanent U.S. control.