WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said that the United States would take Greenland "one way or the other," warning that Russia and China would "take over" if Washington didn't act. Trump says controlling the mineral-rich Danish territory is crucial for US national security given increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic. "If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I'm not letting that happen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite neither country laying claim to the vast island.
Trump said he would be open to making a deal with the Danish self-governing territory "but one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland." Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump's threats over the island, which plays a strategic role between North America and the Arctic, and where the United States has had a military base since World War II. A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.
The vast majority of its population and political parties have said they do not want to be under US control and insist Greenlanders must decide their own future — a viewpoint continuously challenged by Trump. "Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over," Trump warned, as he mocked its defences. "You know what their defence is, two dog sleds," he said, while Russia and China have "destroyers and submarines all over the place."
Denmark's prime minister on Sunday said her country faces a "decisive moment" in its diplomatic battle with the United States over Greenland, after President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the Arctic territory. Ahead of meetings in Washington on the global scramble for key raw materials, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that "there is a conflict over Greenland". "This is a decisive moment" with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland's future, she added in a debate with other Danish political leaders.
Frederiksen posted on Facebook that "we are ready to defend our values — wherever it is necessary — also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples' right to self-determination." Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump's latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned US "threatening rhetoric" after Trump repeated that Washington was "going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not".
"Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends," he told a defence conference in Salen where the US general in charge of Nato took part. Kristersson said a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland would be "a violation of international law and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way".
It would be the end of Nato if the US took Greenland by force and European Union member states are under obligation to come to Denmark's assistance if it was faced with military aggression, the European Commissioner for Defence and Space said on Monday. Both Greenland and Denmark have said that Greenland is not for sale but Trump has not ruled out taking it by force.
"I agree with the Danish Prime Minister that it will be the end of Nato, but also among people it will be also very, very negative," Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said at a security conference in Sweden. Kubilius also said that the European Union Treaty article 42.7 obliged member states to come to Denmark's assistance if faced with military aggression. "It will depend on very much on Denmark, how they will react, what will be their position, but definitely there is such an obligation of member sates to come for mutual assistance if another member state is facing military aggression," he said. — Agencies
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