President Donald Trump says the US needs to “own” Greenland to prevent Russia and China from doing so.
“Countries have to have ownership and you defend ownership, you don’t defend leases. And we’ll have to defend Greenland,” Trump told reporters on Friday, in response to a question from the BBC.
We will do it “the easy way” or “the hard way”, he added. The White House said recently the administration is considering buying the semi-autonomous territory of fellow Nato member Denmark, but it would not rule out the option of annexing it by force.
Denmark and Greenland say the territory is not for sale. Denmark has said military action would spell the end of the trans-Atlantic defence alliance.
In a joint statement on Friday night, Greenland’s party leaders, including the opposition, reiterated their call for the “US’s disregard for our country to end”.
“We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said. “The future of Greenland must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
Despite being the most sparsely populated territory, Greenland’s location between North America and the Arctic makes it well placed for early warning systems in the event of missile attacks, and for monitoring vessels in the region.
The US president has repeatedly said that Greenland is vital to US national security, claiming without evidence that it was “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place”.
The US already has more than 100 military personnel permanently stationed at its Pituffik base in Greenland’s north-western tip – a facility that has been operated by the US since World War Two.
Under existing agreements with Denmark, the US has the power to bring as many troops as it wants to Greenland.
But speaking to reporters in Washington, Trump said a lease agreement was not good enough.
