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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Greenland should be controlled by the United States, not Denmark, reviving a stance that has caused tensions among NATO allies just as leaders of the alliance gathered for a summit in Turkey.
Trump’s assertions that the U.S. must acquire or control Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, have long strained relations between Washington and Copenhagen — both founding NATO members — and more broadly U.S. ties with Europe. The issue has since moved to a diplomatic track.
“That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump said of Greenland in comments to reporters during a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.
At a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is meeting its two per cent of GDP spending target for defence — and would continue increasing spending. U.S. President Donald Trump also said he could pull troops from Europe unless given control of Greenland.
Hours later, also speaking in Ankara, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she expected allies to respect the sovereignty of the Danish Kingdom and accept that Greenland was not for sale.
“It is a well-known position of the United States that it wants to own and take over Greenland. I hope that it is equally well known everywhere that this is not going to happen,” Frederiksen said.
She added that there were no plans to discuss in Ankara issues concerning the High North, the Arctic or Greenland.
Gaëlle Rivard Piché, executive director of the Conference of the Defence Associations, says she hopes Greenland does not become the hill upon which Trump is willing to die.
“We have to be careful here,” she 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 an exit from NATO, we’re going to be in a very different world.”
But she added that it’s also typical for the Trump administration to “ask for the moon in order to get something a little bit less — and to have these unreasonable demands to then get some concessions for their allies.”
Greenland’s Foreign Minister Múte Egede said in a post on Facebook that Greenland’s future should be decided by its people.
“That’s how it has always been. And that’s how it always will be,” he said, adding that Greenland should continue close co-operation with its allies.
Trump said the issue of control over Greenland had harmed U.S. ties with NATO.
“Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States, and it’s surrounded by China ships and Russian ships, and that’s not going to happen,” he said.
“They [Denmark] wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in June that conversations with Denmark and Greenland were continuing on a monthly basis.