US president Donald Trump and his team are discussing options for acquiring Greenland and the use of the US military in furtherance of the goal is “always an option”, the White House said on Tuesday.
Mr Trump’s ambition of acquiring Greenland as a strategic US hub in the Arctic, where there is growing interest from Russia and China, has been revived in recent days in the wake of the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Greenland has repeatedly said it does not want to be part of the United States.
The White House said in a statement in response to queries from Reuters that Mr Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a US national security priority necessary to “deter our adversaries in the Arctic region”.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House said.
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A senior US official said discussions about ways to acquire Greenland are active in the Oval Office and that advisers are discussing a variety of options.
Strong statements in support of Greenland from Nato leaders have not deterred Trump, the official said.
[ The EU doesn’t look ready to stop Donald Trump taking over GreenlandOpens in new window ]
“It’s not going away,” the official said about the president’s drive to acquire Greenland during his remaining three years in office.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said options include the outright US purchase of Greenland or forming a Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the territory. A COFA agreement would stop short of Mr Trump’s ambition to make the island of 57,000 people a part of the US.
A potential purchase price was not provided.
“Diplomacy is always the president’s first option with anything, and deal making. He loves deals. So if a good deal can be struck to acquire Greenland, that would definitely be his first instinct,” the official said.
Administration officials argue the island is crucial to the US due to its deposits of minerals with important high-tech and military applications. These resources remain untapped due to labour shortages, scarce infrastructure and other challenges.
Earlier on Tuesday, European leaders said they will “not stop defending” Greenland’s territorial integrity in the face of continued threats from Mr Trump to annex it.
Leaders from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark called the US, as a Nato ally, an “essential partner” in defending Arctic security and stressed that Greenland “belongs to its people” in a joint statement.
In the joint statement, European leaders said security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively with Nato allies, including the United States.
“Nato has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are stepping up,” the statement said. “We and many other allies have increased our presence, activities, and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries.”
Denmark’s leader warned that an attack by the United States on a Nato ally would mean the end of both the military alliance and “post-second world war security”.
Mr Trump said on Sunday the US needed Greenland “very badly” – renewing fears of a US invasion of the largely autonomous island, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of the Danish kingdom. Greenland’s foreign and security policy continues to be controlled by Copenhagen.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, warned on Monday that any US attack on a Nato ally would be the end of “everything”.
“If the United States decides to militarily attack another Nato country, then everything would stop – that includes Nato and therefore post-second World War security,” Ms Frederiksen told Danish television network TV2.
Greenland’s strategic location between Europe and North America makes it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system. The island’s significant mineral resources also align with Washington’s ambition to reduce dependence on Chinese exports.
Ms Frederiksen’s comments came after Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, made a bracingly direct statement in which he urged Mr Trump to give up his “fantasies about annexation” and accused the US of “completely and utterly unacceptable” rhetoric, declaring: “Enough is enough.”
“Threats, pressure and talk of annexation have no place between friends,” said Mr Nielsen in a social media post. “That is not how you speak to a people who have shown responsibility, stability and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation.”
Speaking later at a press conference in the capital Nuuk, Mr Nielsen sought to allay fears of an imminent US takeover.
“We are not in the situation where we are thinking that a takeover of the country might happen overnight,” Mr Nielsen said, speaking via a translator. “You cannot compare Greenland to Venezuela. We are a democratic country.”
Ms Frederiksen said her government was doing all that was possible to prevent an attack on Greenland and accused the US of applying “unacceptable pressure”, describing it as an “unreasonable attack on the world community”.
“You cannot go in and take over part of another country’s territory,” she told Danish broadcaster DR, adding: “If the US chooses to attack another Nato country, everything will stop.
“I have said from the beginning that I unfortunately believe the American president is serious about this. I have also made it very clear where Denmark stands. And Greenland has repeatedly said that it does not want to be part of the USA.”
Mr Nielsen and Ms Frederiksen were backed by the EU, which on Monday said it would not stop defending the principle of territorial integrity, particularly when it came to a member of the 27-member bloc.
“The EU will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” the EU’s lead foreign policy spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, told reporters.
“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of a member state of the European Union is questioned.” – Reuters/The Guardian
