The saga of President Donald Trump’s quest for Greenland continues with a new chapter.
Over the last few days, I noted that Trump has stressed that a more robust relationship with Greenland is a national security issue. Then, both Greenland and Denmark asked to fast-track a meeting with our very busy Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
It now appears Rubio is scheduled to meet with Danish officials next week.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he plans to meet with Danish officials next week after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over Greenland, the strategic Arctic island that is a self-governing territory of Denmark.Since the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has revived his argument that the United States needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, had requested a meeting with Rubio, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland’s government website. Previous requests for a meeting were not successful, the statement said.
During that meeting, Rubio may be submitting an offer to purchase the Arctic island.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told lawmakers that President Trump plans to buy Greenland rather than invade it, while Mr. Trump has asked aides to give him an updated plan for acquiring the territory, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.Mr. Rubio made his remarks in a briefing on Monday with lawmakers from the main armed services and foreign policy committees in both chambers of Congress. The same day, Mr. Trump told aides to deliver an updated plan.The congressional briefing was focused on Venezuela, but lawmakers raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s intentions on Greenland given aggressive remarks this week by the American president and a top aide, Stephen Miller, two officials said.Mr. Rubio did not go into detail on what he meant by buying Greenland. Mr. Trump spent decades in New York as a real estate developer, and one of his top diplomatic envoys, Steve Witkoff, comes from the same background. Mr. Trump has coveted Greenland since his first term.
Greenland’s officials will also be part of the meeting. Rubio’s remarks about purchasing the island were made during a classified briefing to Congress.
The remarks, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were made in a classified briefing Monday evening on Capitol Hill, according to a person with knowledge of his comments who was granted anonymity because it was a private discussion.On Wednesday, Rubio told reporters that Trump has been talking about acquiring Greenland since his first term.“That’s always been the president’s intent from the very beginning,” Rubio said. “He’s not the first US president that has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland.”
Interestingly, in 1940, Democratic icon Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to bring Greenland under U.S. protection and, in 1941, established a de facto protectorate, explicitly justified in terms of the Monroe Doctrine and Western Hemisphere defense.
During World War II, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied continental Denmark, leaving the Kingdom’s other two territories, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, exposed to a possible German invasion. The United Kingdom quickly occupied the Faroe Islands and, along with Canada, made plans to occupy parts of Greenland, which would drag the otherwise neutral island into the war. The United States, which at that point had not yet entered the war, rejected these plans and instead made Greenland a de facto protectorate and established formal diplomatic relations with the opening of a consulate.The United States recognized that Greenland was strategically essential in that much of Europe’s weather patterns originated in the Arctic, so a meteorological station on the island would be a boon for any country fighting a war there. Furthermore, the mine at Ivittuut on the island’s southwestern shore provided the rare mineral cryolite, which was useful in the mass production of aluminum. Therefore, it was critical for the United States that Greenland was kept safe and in friendly hands in a time of all-out war in Europe.
It will be interesting to see how the next chapter in this saga turns out!
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