Trump Won’t Rule Out Military Force to Acquire Greenland

President Donald Trump won’t rule out the use of military force to acquire Greenland, the White House said, escalating tension with Denmark, a fellow NATO member, over a dispute that’s surged back into public view following the ouster of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.Trump is considering many ways of achieving his goal of acquiring the Arctic island, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” Leavitt said. “The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal.”

Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the notion of military action in a briefing with lawmakers on Monday, instead signaling that an invasion was not imminent and that the goal was to buy the island from Denmark, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Nevertheless, Rubio’s comments paired with Leavitt’s statement, first reported by Reuters, are likely to further chill relations with Denmark and Greenland’s leaders, who have pushed back vehemently against Trump’s renewed demands to take control of the island. The president has mused about making Greenland part of the US since his first term, but has ramped up the rhetoric after launching a military operation last week to oust Maduro.

Read More: Europe Backs Greenland After Trump Resumes Takeover Threats

In an effort to resolve the issue, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the governments of Denmark and Greenland requested a meeting with Rubio. Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, said in a Facebook post that the aim of the talks would be “to discuss the United States’ strong statements regarding Greenland.”

“When we want this, it is of course because we have the impression that part of this discussion is based on a misreading of what is what,” Lokke Rasmussen told reporters following a meeting at the parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee, according to local media. “We believe it makes sense to try to arrange a meeting with our American counterparts in order to clear up some of the misunderstandings that may exist.”

Earlier on Tuesday, European leaders issued a joint statement, warning that Trump needs to respect the territorial integrity of Greenland and Denmark. The leaders stressed that Greenland falls under NATO’s collective defense umbrella as part of the Kingdom of Denmark and that security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively with NATO allies.

A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday night that the US, Denmark and NATO have a common interest regarding heightened activity by adversaries in the Arctic, and that Washington was seeking commercial ties that would be beneficial to both the Greenland people and American.

The foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden also issued a joint statement on Tuesday with a similar message to respect “the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Monday that any US attack on Greenland would spell the end of the NATO alliance and “the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”

US officials have only continued to intensify their rhetoric over the issue. In an interview with CNN, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that in a world “governed by strength,” the US has a right to take the territory.

“This is of course not something we can agree to,” Lokke Rasmussen said. “And it is also not something that Greenland has any ambitions of agreeing to, so that is obviously a red line.”

Photograph: Small fishing boats on the ice at the port in Sisimiut, Greenland. Photo credit: Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions