Nuuk: US President Donald Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” in a text message released Monday.
Trump’s message to Jonas Gahr Støre appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark.
On Saturday, Trump announced a 10 per cent import tax starting in February on goods from eight nations that have rallied around Denmark and Greenland, including Norway.
Those countries issued a forceful rebuke.
Many longtime allies of the US remained resolute that Greenland was not for sale but encouraged Washington to discuss solutions. In a statement on social media, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc had “no interest to pick a fight” but would “hold our ground.”
The White House has not ruled taking control of the strategic Arctic island by force. Asked whether Trump could invade Greenland, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Monday that “you can’t leave anything out until the president himself has decided to leave anything out.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also sought to de-escalate tensions Monday. “I think this can be resolved and should be resolved through calm discussion,” he said, adding that he did not believe military action would occur.
Strong opposition in Greenland to US threats
In a sign of how tensions have increased in recent days, thousands of Greenlanders marched over the weekend in protest of any effort to take over their island. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Monday that the tariff threats would not change their stance.
“We will not be pressured,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business, minerals, energy, justice and equality, told The Associated Press that she was moved by the quick response of allies to the tariff threat and said it showed that countries realise “this is about more than Greenland.”
“I think a lot of countries are afraid that if they let Greenland go, what would be next?”
Trump cites Nobel as escalation in text to Norwegian leader
Trump’s Sunday message to Gahr Støre, released by the Norwegian government, read in part, “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
It concluded, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
The White House confirmed the authenticity of the message, with White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly saying that Trump “is confident Greenlanders would be better served if protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region.”
The Norwegian leader said Trump’s message was a reply to an earlier missive sent on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in which they conveyed their opposition to the tariff announcement, pointed to a need to de-escalate, and proposed a telephone conversation among the three leaders.
“Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter,” the Norwegian leader said in a statement.
“As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to President Trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is an independent body whose five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.
Trump has openly coveted the peace prize, which the committee awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado last year. Last week, Machado presented her Nobel medal to Trump, who said he planned to keep it, though the committee said the prize can’t be revoked, transferred or shared with others.
Speaking Monday night to reporters before boarding Air Force One on his way back from Florida to Washington, Trump said he didn’t “care about the Nobel prize.”
“A very fine woman felt that I deserved it and really wanted me to have the Nobel prize. And I appreciate that. If anybody thinks that Norway doesn’t control the Nobel prize, they’re just kidding. … And I don’t care what Norway says. But I really don’t care about that. What I care about is saving lives,” he said.
Trump says he will use tariffs as a bargaining chip
In his latest threat of tariffs, Trump indicated the import taxes would be retaliation for last week’s deployment of symbolic numbers of troops from the European countries to Greenland – though he also suggested that he was using the tariffs as leverage to negotiate with Denmark.
European governments said that the troops travelled to the island to assess Arctic security, part of a response to Trump’s own concerns about interference from Russia and China.
The move by some European countries to deploy troops may have given the impression that an armada of ships was sailing to Greenland, when the reality was that European nations said they would send not more than a few dozen troops collectively, a senior European military official told The Associated Press speaking on condition of anonymity in order to talk publicly.
Trump threatened eight European countries with tariffs Sunday after they announced small numbers of troop deployments to the Arctic island – including Denmark, which Greenland is part of.
The European move was aimed at taking action on Trump’s concerns, the senior official told AP.
In a statement on social media, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he had discussed how important the region was for the “collective security” of the security alliance in a Monday meeting with the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland.
Six of the eight countries targeted are part of the 27-member European Union, which operates as a single economic zone in terms of trade. European Council President Antonio Costa said Sunday that the bloc’s leaders expressed “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion.
AP
