Meanwhile, the UK is working with Nato allies to bolster security in the Arctic, a senior minister told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said discussions about securing the region against Russia and China were part of Nato’s usual business rather than a response to the US military threat, and then said the UK agreed with Trump that the Arctic Circle is an increasingly contested part of the world.
“It is really important that we do everything that we can with all of our Nato allies to ensure that we have an effective deterrent in that part of the globe against Putin”, she told the Kuenssberg programme.
But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the situation in Greenland was a “second order” issue in comparison to what is currently happening in Iran, as protesters there defy a government crackdown.
Questions around sending troops to Greenland were “hypothetical” because “the US has not invaded Greenland,” she said.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the UK should agree to deploy troops to Greenland as part of a joint Nato operation, led by Denmark.
Trump’s “outrageous threats” only play in to the hands of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he added.