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The United States has raised the prospect of using military force to take control of Greenland as leaders in Europe and Canada rallied behind the Arctic territory, saying it belongs to its people.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday, the White House said that US President Donald Trump sees acquiring Greenland, which is part of Denmark, as a national security priority, necessary to \u201cdeter our adversaries in the Arctic region\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the \u200bUS military is always an option at the commander-in-chief\u2019s disposal,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Any attempt by the US to seize Greenland from longtime ally Denmark would send shockwaves through the NATO alliance and deepen the divide between Trump and European leaders.<\/p>\n
The opposition has not deterred Trump, however.<\/p>\n
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<\/picture><\/div>\nHis interest in Greenland, initially aired in 2019 during his first term in office, has been rekindled following the US\u2019s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an attack on Caracas.<\/p>\n
Emboldened by the operation, Trump has said that \u201cAmerican dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again\u201d, and has stepped up pressure on both Colombia and Cuba. He has also argued that controlling Greenland is vital to US national security, claiming the island \u201cis covered with Russian and Chinese ships\u201d and that Denmark lacks the capacity to protect it.<\/p>\n
Greenland, the world\u2019s largest island, but with a population of just 57,000 people, has repeatedly said it does not \u200dwant to be part of the US.<\/p>\n
Its strategic location between Europe and North America makes it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system, while its mineral wealth aligns with Washington\u2019s ambition to reduce reliance on Chinese exports.<\/p>\n
Greenland \u2018belongs to its people\u2019<\/h2>\n
The White House statement on Tuesday came as leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement reaffirming that Greenland \u201cbelongs to its people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also voiced support, announcing that Governor General Mary Simon, who is of Inuit descent, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand would visit Greenland early next month.<\/p>\n
In a separate statement, Nordic foreign ministers \u2013 from Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark \u2013 also stressed Greenland\u2019s right to decide its own affairs. They also noted they had increased their investments in Arctic security, and offered to do more in consultation with the US and other NATO allies.<\/p>\n
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also warned that threats against a NATO member undermined the alliance\u2019s credibility.\u00a0\u201cNo member should attack or threaten another \u200cmember of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Otherwise, NATO would lose its meaning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed the European leaders\u2019 pledge of solidarity and renewed his \u200ccall to the US for a \u201crespectful dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n
Denmark, meanwhile, rejected Trump\u2019s assertion that it is unable to protect Greenland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not share this image that Greenland \u200dis plastered with Chinese investments\u2026 \u2060nor that there are Chinese warships up and down along Greenland,\u201d Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, adding that the US was welcome to invest more on the island.<\/p>\n
Greenland\u2019s government said it had asked for an urgent meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with Rasmussen, to discuss the situation.<\/p>\n
Also on Tuesday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, whom Trump appointed last month as US special envoy to Greenland, said he was not interested in talking to people in Denmark or European diplomats over Greenland.<\/p>\n
Instead, he said he wants to have conversations directly with residents of Greenland. \u201cI want to talk to people who want an opportunity to improve the quality of life in Greenland,\u201d the Republican said on a Fox News radio show.<\/p>\n
Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that Rubio had told US lawmakers during a congressional briefing that the recent threats did not signal an imminent invasion of Greenland and that the goal is to \u200cbuy the island from Denmark.<\/p>\n
The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, also dismissed concerns about Danish sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can \u2060talk all you want about international niceties and everything else,\u201d Miller told CNN. \u201cBut we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that \u200bis governed by power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of Congress, including some of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans, pushed back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honour its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and \u200cterritorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,\u201d said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Senator Thom Tillis, the co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US says military \u2018always an option\u2019 in Greenland as Europe rejects threats White House says Trump is discussing options to acquire Greenland, including the potential use of the US military. The United States has raised the prospect of using military force to take control of Greenland as leaders in Europe and Canada rallied behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}