Opinion | US climate U-turn offers China both challenges and opportunities
Beijing can no longer expect to use climate cooperation as a bargaining chip with Washington. But a chance arises to seize global climate leadership
Trump tells Nato chief US needs Greenland: ‘I think it will happen’
Greenland’s strategic location vital to global security, US president says in meeting with Nato’s Mark Rutte
US President Donald Trump told Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday that US control of Greenland was necessary to enhance international security, escalating his campaign to annex the strategic Arctic island.
“You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security – international – we have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful,” Trump told Rutte as they sat side-by-side in the White House Oval Office for talks. “We’ll be talking to you.”
Asked directly about the prospect of annexation, Trump said: “I think that will happen”.
Trump has made US annexation of Greenland a major talking point since he took office on January 20. His comments on Thursday suggested he might want Nato involved in his attempt to take over the island, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The comments drew a swift rejection from the outgoing prime minister of Greenland.
“The US president has once again aired the thought of annexing us,” Mute Egede said in a Facebook post. “Enough is enough.”
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the island’s pro-business Demokraatit party, which won Greenland’s parliamentary election on Tuesday, also rejected the comments.
“Trump’s statement from the US is inappropriate and just shows once again that we must stand together in such situations,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook.
Nato and Denmark’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Opinion polls suggest that most Greenlanders opposed joining the US, although a majority favoured eventual independence from Denmark.
Even before starting his second term as president, Trump said he hoped to make Greenland a part of the United States, even though Nato ally Denmark has said it was not for sale.
Greenland’s strategic location could benefit the US. It lies along the shortest route from Europe to North America, vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.
Greenland also has large deposits of the rare earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.
Greenland was not the only foreign land coveted by Trump.
Trump has managed to annoy Canadians with his proposal the country become the 51st US state.
He has also repeatedly said he wanted to “take back” the Panama Canal, which is located at the narrowest part of the isthmus between North and South America and was considered one of the world’s most strategically important waterways. However, Trump has not offered specifics about how he would do so, or if military action might be required.
On Thursday, the Pentagon was reportedly weighing options to ensure the US had full access to the Panama Canal.
The last US soldier left on December 31, 1999 – the day the United States, which built the Panama Canal, relinquished control of the crucial shipping route.
Rutte told Trump that he would leave the question of Greenland’s future to others and that: “I don’t want to drag Nato” into the debate. He said it should be a topic for countries in the “high north” because the Chinese and Russia were using water routes in the area.
Trump persisted, saying Denmark was refusing to discuss the topic and that he might send more US troops to bolster the American bases on Greenland.
“We’ve been dealing with Denmark, we’ve been dealing with Greenland, and we have to do it. We really need it for national security. I think that’s why Nato might have to get involved in a way, because we really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important,” Trump said.
Trump also sought to undermine Denmark’s claim to the island.
“You know, Denmark’s very far away, and really has nothing to do. What happens, a boat landed there 200 years ago or something? And they say they have rights to it. I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think it is,” he said.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
Put US tariffs on all chips made in China, says chair of high-profile House committee
US trade representative also urged to liaise with American allies like Japan and South Korea, even as Donald Trump threatens levies on them
Since taking office, Trump has adopted a stop-and-start approach to tariffs on allies, using the threat of duties to extract concessions on issues like border security.
So far, he has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on wide swathes of Canadian and Mexican goods, prompting surges of nationalism in both countries.
