Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1158932
22.08.19 8 FOREIGN NEWS US President Donald Trump postponed a meeting with Denmark's PM Mette Frederiksen scheduled for 2 September following her rejection of Trump's bid to purchase Greenland. "Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's comments, that she would have no in- terest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for an- other time," Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday. "e Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!" the president added. e Danish PM stated recently that "Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously." Trump floated the idea to reporters on Sunday, saying: "It's something we talked about. Denmark essentially owns it, we're very good allies with Denmark." He referred to the theoretical transac- tion as "essentially" a "large real estate deal," and added that "strategically it's interesting and we'd be interested, but we'll talk to them a little bit." Morten Ostergaard, the leader of the Social Liberals that form part of the government bloc, tweeted after the de- lay was announced that "reality has sur- passed fantasy. It cannot be that no one in the US state department told Trump in advance" that buying Greenland isn't an option. "is is pretty hopeless. And it shows why we more than ever need to regard the EU members as our closest allies. You cannot count on this man." Trump puts off state visit to Denmark after Greenland bid rejected Norway's $1 trillion oil fund loads up on equities NORWAY'S $1 trillion (€900 billion) oil fund held a record amount of equities at the end of June, raising fears that the world's largest sovereign wealth investor could have loaded up on shares again at the top of the cycle. e oil fund said on Wednes- day that it now had 69.3 per cent of its assets in equities, up from 66.3 per cent at the end of 2018. e fund - which on average owns 1.4 per cent of every list- ed company worldwide - previ- ously increased its exposure to equities in 1998 and 2007, just before market crashes. It revealed its new record holding in equities as it dis- closed that it made a 3 per cent return in the second quarter, helped both by share and bond markets. Equities returned 3 per cent, fixed income 3.1 per cent and unlisted real estate 0.8 per cent in the three months to June. e fund's leading equity invest- ments in the quarter in terms of return were Microsoft, Nestlé and Facebook with Alphabet, Deutsche Wohnen and Intel be- ing the worst performers. Trond Grande, the fund's dep- uty chief executive, said: "Un- certainty about global trade and economic growth dampened returns early on, but markets rallied towards the end of the period, driven partly by the prospect of more expansionary monetary policy in developed markets." Fears sovereign wealth investor could have upped exposure to shares at top of the cycle The oil fund said on Wednesday that it now had 69.3 per cent of its assets in equities, up from 66.3 per cent at the end of 2018