Berlin: Several European leaders pushed back Tuesday US President Donald Trump’s comments seeking an American takeover of Greenland.
The leaders issued a statement reaffirming the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people.”
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty in the wake of Trump’s comments about Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should be part of the United States in spite of a warning by Frederiksen that a US takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance.
“The president has been clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus,” Miller said during an interview with CNN Monday afternoon.
His comments came after the Danish leader, together with Greenland’s prime minister and other European leaders, firmly rejected Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under US control in the aftermath of the weekend US military operation in Venezuela.
