BERLIN (AP) — Several European leaders pushed back Tuesday on U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments seeking an American takeover of Greenland.
The leaders issued a statement reaffirming the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people.”
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty in the wake of Trump’s comments about Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark and thus part of the NATO military alliance.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should be part of the United States in spite of a warning by Frederiksen that a U.S. takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO.
“The president has been clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus,” Miller said during an interview with CNN Monday afternoon.
His comments came after the Danish leader, together with Greenland’s prime minister and other European leaders, firmly rejected Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend U.S. military operation in Venezuela.
Trump has argued the U.S. needs to control Greenland to ensure the security of the NATO territory in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.
“It’s so strategic right now,” he told reporters Sunday.
“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.
Miller wondered during his interview Monday whether Denmark can assert control over Greenland.
“What is the basis of their territorial claim,” Miller said. “What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”
However, it was not necessary to consider whether the U.S. administration was contemplating an armed intervention, he said.
“There is no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you are asking, of a military operation. Nobody is going to fight the U.S. militarily over the future of Greenland,” he said.
