‘Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,’ Trump said. ‘We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.’
U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to criticism from Greenland and Denmark over Washington’s renewed interest in taking control of the mineral-rich island.
Asked by a reporter on Sunday whether he expects to take action on Greenland—a self-governing Danish territory—Trump said, “Let’s talk about Greenland in about 20 days.”
He added: “We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it. I can tell you … They added one more dog sled.”
Asked by another reporter traveling with him on Air Force One what the justification for a United States claim to Greenland would be, Trump responded, “I just say this. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and the European Union needs us to have it as well.”
When a reporter suggested that the claim to Greenland could impact relations with China, the president replied: “I think I have a very good relationship [with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping]. We have the power of tariffs, and he has other powers.”
US Has ‘No Right to Annex’: Danish Prime Minister
The leaders of both Denmark and Greenland urged Trump on Sunday to stop threatening to take over Greenland after the U.S. president repeated the intention to do so in an interview with The Atlantic magazine and following the United States’ extraordinary weekend operation in Venezuela.
“It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the U.S. needing to take over Greenland. The U.S. has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement on Sunday.
Speaking just a day after the United States’ capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s announcement that Washington would temporarily run the Latin American country, the U.S. President told The Atlantic: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the world should take notice after the U.S. operation in Venezuela.
“When [Trump] tells you that he’s going to do something, when he tells you he’s going to address a problem, he means it,” Rubio said.
The weekend’s events have heightened concerns in Denmark that a United States takeover could happen with Greenland, which has been an autonomous Danish territory since 1979, before which it was governed more directly by Copenhagen.
