Washington (EFE).- United States President Donald Trump insisted on Thursday, at a joint press conference in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, that Greenland is vital to the US national security and said Washington must push through the annexation of the Danish autonomous territory.
“We really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important,” Trump said.
Asked about the possible annexation of the island, the US president said he believed “it will happen” and noted that it would also be positive for “international security.”
“I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental,” the US president said, pointing to Rutte.
The NATO secretary general said it was not his place to be involved in talks on whether or not Greenland would become part of the US, but he agreed with Trump’s concerns about the strategic importance of the Arctic.
“When it comes to the High North and the Arctic, you’re totally right,” Rutte said, recalling the presence of the Russian military in a region where China is showing increasing interest because of its strategic importance.
Rutte highlighted the current lack of icebreakers on both the Danish and US sides, which complicates maritime transit through Arctic waters.
Trump replied that his administration would order 48 new ships of this type and that Canada had shown interest in using them.
Rutte said it was “important” for the region’s security that the seven countries that share Arctic waters (the US, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), excluding Russia, work together.
Then Trump said that “NATO have to get involved in a way” to solve the problem of possible annexation.
The US president also said that Demokraatit leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, whose party won Greenland’s parliamentary elections on Wednesday, is “a very good person as far as we’re concerned.”
The Demokraatit party, which was a surprise winner and represents Greenland’s break with the traditional parties, supports the idea of a hypothetical separation from Denmark. EFE
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