Countries due to play on Valentine’s Day in Italy amid Trump threats to seize Danish territory of Greenland
Their rendezvous may be on Valentine’s Day, but its nature looks likely to be anything but romantic: Denmark and the US, their relations frostier than they have been for decades, are due to face each other in ice hockey next month.
A week into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the Danish Lions are scheduled to play Team USA in a preliminary round game at Milan’s Santagiulia ice hockey arena on 14 February, according to the official programme.
Bilateral diplomatic ties have been strained to breaking point by Donald Trump’s aggressive drive to seize Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, which the US president has said he will take “one way or the other”.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has criticised what she called “completely unacceptable pressure” from the US, saying: “Borders cannot be changed by force, and small countries should not fear large countries.”
