Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that Greenland “is part of Denmark and the EU is rock-solid behind Denmark,” responding to US President Donald Trump’s earlier comments regarding the Danish territory in the Arctic.
Mr Trump is discussing options including military action to take control of Greenland, the White House said yesterday, upping tensions that Denmark warns could destroy the NATO alliance.
Speaking in Shanghai, where he is on an official visit, the Taoiseach said “common sense needs to prevail” on the issue.
“The US has always had a military base in Greenland and I know the Danish Prime Minister has been engaged with the White House and is very clear that any issues that need to be resolved are open to discussion in terms of the military base that’s there,” he added.
Mr Martin said that “in terms of the territorial integrity, that’s a matter for the kingdom of Denmark and the population of Greenland”.
He also said he does not think it’s “realistic or possible” for the US to buy Greenland.
Allies have rallied around Denmark and Greenland while simultaneously trying not to antagonise Donald Trump
It comes as Mr Trump has stepped up his designs on the mineral-rich, self-governing Greenland 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 President 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, utilising 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 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told politicians that Mr 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.
Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media that they had sought a meeting with Mr Rubio throughout 2025 but “it has so far not been possible”.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Mr Rubio should “clear up certain misunderstandings.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that the island was not for sale, and only its 57,000 people should decide its future.
‘Not acceptable’
Republicans also pushed back against President Trump’s military-backed expansionism
Allies have rallied around Denmark and Greenland while simultaneously trying not to antagonise Mr Trump.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in a statement yesterday saying they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”
The United States has 150 military personnel stationed at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
Greenland residents have rejected Mr Trump’s threats.
“This is not something we appreciate,” Christian Keldsen, director of the Greenland Business Association, told AFP in the capital Nuuk. “It is not acceptable in the civilised world.”
Mr Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term. In the last year, Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner (€12 billion).
Still steaming over Mr Trump’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, US legislators spoke out against the idea of military action against Greenland.
In social media posts, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, vowed to introduce a resolution “to block Trump from invading Greenland,” saying the 79-year-old Republican simply “wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong”.
In a sharp departure from the party’s typical partisanship, Republicans also pushed back against President Trump’s military-backed expansionism.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters that he did not think it was “appropriate” for the US to take military action on Greenland, Politico reported.
Republican Senator Jerry Moran of the midwestern state of Kansas, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost “it’s none of our business” and warned that the move would lead to “the demise of NATO.”
Additional reporting by AFP