Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
The European Union’s defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said Europe must build up its military capabilities as President Donald Trump threatens to rip up the central agreement that’s underpinned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for more than 75 years with his escalating demand that the US should be able to take control of Greenland—a semiautonomous territory of NATO founding member Denmark, Julia Conley noted at CommonDreams (1/12) . Kubilius said he agreed with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s recent assessment that a US takeover of Greenland, home to about 56,000 people, “will be the end of NATO.”
“But also among people it will be also very, very negative,” Kubilius told Reuters at a security conference in Sweden.
Trump first expressed a desire to take control of Greenland during his first term. The vast island is in a geopolitically strategic location as countries begin to use the Arctic Ocean for shipping routes, and has stores of rare earth minerals.
The president has intensified his threats against the territory following his invasion of Venezuela and the US military’s abduction of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, with White House officials saying Trump has the right to take control of any country he wants, in order to control their resources.
On Air Force One on Jan. 11, Trump told reporters that he has not yet proposed a deal to Denmark and said “Greenland should make the deal.” He added that he does not care whether a takeover of Greenland “affects NATO.”
“They need us more than we need them,” said the president.
Trump also said in the Oval Office Jan. 11 that owning Greenland is “psychologically important for me.”
“Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base,” said Trump.
The US already has a military base in Greenland, but Trump has claimed military presence in the territory is not enough to fend off what he claims are imminent threats from China and Russia.
