US President Donald Trump has resurrected his earlier-year demand that Denmark’s semi-autonomous Arctic territory, Greenland, “should be controlled by the United States,” seemingly undoing months of diplomatic efforts to persuade him to back off.
Shortly after landing in Ankara for the yearly two-day NATO meeting, Trump made his comments.
“Denmark doesn’t benefit from Greenland,” he told reporters. “Although Greenland is a crucial region for the United States and is encircled by Russian and Chinese ships, Denmark doesn’t actually invest money to support it.”
Trump continued by acknowledging that his earlier plans for Greenland in January of last year, in which he did not rule out using military force to seize the territory, had “harmed” ties with NATO partners.Under the name “NATO 3.0,” partners from Europe and Canada earlier committed to investing over €50 billion in defense at the NATO Defence Industry Forum. This year’s summit was supposed to go somewhat well, with the major takeaway being that the alliance is making record investments in its collective defense.
Trump had dashed the aspirations of his fellow leaders within an hour of arriving in Ankara. He was “extremely disappointed with NATO” and reiterated his accusation that Europe and Canada had “abandoned” the United States when it initiated military action against Iran alongside Israel in February of last year. He criticized his allies for not joining the fight in Iran almost immediately after landing.
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