US President Donald Trump is discussing options including military action to take control of Greenland, the White House said Tuesday, upping tensions that Denmark warns could destroy the NATO alliance. Trump has stepped up his designs on the mineral-rich, self-governing Danish territory in the arctic since the US military seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last weekend. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority” for Trump to deter US adversaries like Russia and China.
“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,” she said in a statement to AFP. The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that Trump’s preferred option is to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding the threats did not signal an imminent invasion. Denmark has warned any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop,” including NATO and 80 years of close transatlantic security links.
Any US military action against Greenland would effectively collapse NATO, since the alliance’s Article Five pledges that member states will defend any of their number that come under attack. Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should “clear up certain misunderstandings.” And Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that the island was not for sale, and only its 57,000 people should decide its future.
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