Trump is reviving the debate over whether the US should control Greenland as NATO leaders meet
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American President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Greenland should be controlled by the United States, not Denmark, renewing the situation that caused tension between NATO allies as the leaders of the alliance gathered for a conference in Turkey.
Trump’s assertion that the US should acquire or control Greenland, an independent Danish territory, has long strained relations between Washington and Copenhagen – both founding members of NATO – as well as wider US relations with Europe. The matter has gone through the diplomatic process.
“That should be controlled by the United States, not Denmark,” Trump said of Greenland in comments to reporters at a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.
At the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is meeting its two percent GDP defense target – and will continue to increase spending. US President Donald Trump also said he would withdraw troops from Europe without being given control over Greenland.
Hours later, and speaking in Ankara, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said he expects his allies to respect the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark and accept that Greenland is not for sale.
“It is a well-known position of the United States that it wants to take control of Greenland. I hope it is well known everywhere that this will not happen,” said Frederiksen.
He added that there are no plans to discuss Ankara’s issues related to the High North, the Arctic or Greenland.
Gaëlle Rivard Piché, executive director of the Conference on Defense Organizations, says she hopes Greenland will not be the hill Trump is willing to die on.
“We have to be careful here,” he said in an interview with CBC’s Andrew Nichols. “At the end of the day, this is a threat against the sovereignty of one of its allies. And if this is what Trump uses to justify leaving NATO, we will be in a very different world.”
But he added that it’s normal for the Trump administration to “ask for a month to get something small — and have these unreasonable demands to get approval from their allies.”
Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Múte Egede wrote on Facebook that the future of Greenland must be decided by its people.
“It has always been like that. And it will always be like that,” he said, adding that Greenland should continue to work closely with its partners.
Trump said that the issue of control of Greenland has damaged US relations with NATO.
“Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part of the United States, and it’s surrounded by Chinese ships and Russian ships, and that’s not going to happen,” he said.
“See [Denmark] I will not go along with it, even with all the money we spend helping them with Russia.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in June that negotiations with Denmark and Greenland continue every month.
