NUUK, Greenland (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Wednesday that NATO should help the U.S. acquire Greenland and anything less than American control is unacceptable, hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.<\/p>\n
In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. \u201cneeds Greenland for the purpose of National Security.\u201d He added that \u201cNATO should be leading the way for us to get it\u201d and that otherwise Russia or China would \u2014 \u201cAND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cAnything less than that is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, is at the center of a geopolitical storm as Trump insists he wants to own it \u2014 and residents of its capital, Nuuk, say it isn’t for sale. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the Arctic island by force.<\/p>\n
Vance is to meet Denmark\u2019s foreign minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington later Wednesday to discuss Greenland.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tGreenland residents want the US to back off<\/p>\n
Along the narrow, snow-covered main street in Nuuk, international journalists and camera crews have been stopping passersby every few meters (feet) asking them for their thoughts on a crisis which Denmark\u2019s prime minister has warned could potentially trigger the end of NATO. <\/p>\n
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press in Nuuk that she hoped American officials would get the message to \u201cback off.” <\/p>\n
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked later Tuesday about Nielsen’s comments, Trump replied: \u201cI disagree with him. I don\u2019t know who he is. I don\u2019t know anything about him. But, that\u2019s going to be a big problem for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenland is strategically important because, as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals which are needed for computers and phones.<\/p>\n
Trump said in Wednesday’s post that Greenland is \u201cvital\u201d to the United States’ Golden Dome missile defense program. He also has said he wants the island to expand America\u2019s security and has cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it. <\/p>\n
But both experts and Greenlanders question that claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,\u201d heating engineer Lars Vintner said. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.<\/p>\n
His friend, Hans N\u00f8rgaard, agreed, adding \u201cwhat has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denmark has said the U.S. \u2014 which already has a military presence \u2014 can boost its bases on Greenland. For that reason, \u201csecurity is just a cover,\u201d Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.<\/p>\n
N\u00f8rgaard said he filed a police complaint in Nuuk against Trump\u2019s \u201caggressive\u201d behavior because, he said, American officials are threatening the people of Greenland and NATO. <\/p>\n
Mikaelsen, the student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark, which provides free health care, education and payments during study, and \u201cI don\u2019t want the U.S. to take that away from us.” <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMore diplomatic efforts<\/p>\n
Following the White House meeting, L\u00f8kke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, along with Denmark\u2019s ambassador to the U.S., are due to meet with senators from the Arctic Caucus in the U.S. Congress. <\/p>\n
Two lawmakers \u2014 Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican \u2014 have introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of funds from the U.S. Defense or State departments to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally\u2019s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan delegation of lawmakers is also heading to Copenhagen at the end of the week to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials.<\/p>\n
Last week, Denmark\u2019s major European allies joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement declaring that Greenland belongs to its people and that \u201cit is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot told RTL radio that his country plans to open a consulate in Greenland on Feb. 6, following a decision last summer to open the diplomatic outpost.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacking another NATO member would make no sense; it would even be contrary to the interests of the United States. And I\u2019m hearing more and more voices in the United States saying this,\u201d Barrot said. \u201cSo this blackmail must obviously stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NUUK, Greenland (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Wednesday that NATO should help the U.S. acquire Greenland and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,153359,153361,157796,2724,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-406664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ap-politics","10":"tag-ap-washington-news","11":"tag-ap-world-news","12":"tag-associated-press","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}