European leaders released a joint statement on Tuesday, outlining the importance of Arctic security, but stressing “Greenland it belongs to its people,” hours after White House Deputy Director for Policy Stephen Miller said “the formal position of the US government … is that Greenland should be part of the United States.
Miller also said, in an interview with CNN on Monday, “The United States is the power of NATO. In order for the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, of course Greenland should be part of the United States.”
Greenland has been a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, and has been linked to the small European nation for 300 years, although it has its own elected government. The largest island in the world, it is located in the northeast of Canada and is the size of Sweden. It is mostly covered by the Greenland ice sheet and is home to only about 60,000 people.
Its location between the USA, Russia and Europe is strategic, both for the economy and for defense, especially because it has been affected by the melting of the sea ice. He opened up new shipping lanes across the Arctic. It is also the location of the northern US military base.
“NATO has made it clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are stepping up. We and many other allies have increased our presence, activities and investments to keep the Arctic safe and deter enemies,” the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greenland said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“Consequently, Arctic security must be achieved collectively, together with NATO allies, including the United States, upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them. The United States is an essential partner in this effort, through NATO and the United States-United Kingdom Defense Agreement. 1951,” the US allies said.
“Greenland belongs to its people. It is up to Denmark and Greenland, and them alone, to decide the issues that concern Denmark and Greenland.”
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On Monday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said a US military move to seize control of Greenland would end the NATO military alliance.
“If the US chooses to militarily attack another NATO country, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told local media on Monday. “This includes our NATO, and therefore the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”
Tuesday when asked if the US would use military force Take GreenlandMiller told CNN: “The US should have Greenland as part of the United States. There’s no need to think about it or talk about it in the context you’re asking about a military operation. Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
Some US lawmakers pushed back against the idea of asserting US control over Greenland.
Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer and Republican Rep. Blake Moore, who co-chair the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, said in a joint statement that “annexing Greenland is unnecessarily dangerous.”
They said any US attack on Greenland would “tragically be an attack on NATO”.
“We already have everything we could need from Greenland,” the two lawmakers said, noting that the Danish government has already given the US permission to deploy more military forces there, or build more missile defense infrastructure on the island.