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Greenland’s government has said it “cannot under any circumstances accept” Donald Trump’s desire to take control of Greenland, as Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said the organisation was working on ways to bolster Arctic security.
At the start of a critical week for the vast Arctic island, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, the US president restated his interest in the strategically located, mineral-rich territory, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”.
The US president has rocked the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize Greenland, which is covered by many of their protections since Denmark belongs to both.
Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, and her Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, are due to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Wednesday.
Denmark, which has pointed out that a 1951 treaty already allows the US to significantly expand its military presence in the territory, has repeatedly said Greenland is not up for grabs and it hopes a diplomatic solution can be found.
Greenland’s government said on Monday that the island was “part of the kingdom of Denmark” and “as part of the Danish commonwealth, a member of Nato”. It would increase its efforts to ensure its defence took place “in the Nato framework”, it said.
The statement added that the territory’s ruling coalition “believes Greenland will for ever be part of the western defence alliance”, and that “all Nato member states, including the US, have a common interest” in the island’s defence.
Trump has said the US needs to control Greenland to increase Arctic security in the face of an alleged threat from China and Russia. Rutte said on Monday that Nato was “working on the next steps to make sure that we collectively protect what is at stake”.
Speaking on a visit to Croatia, the alliance’s secretary general said: “All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security, because we know that with sea lanes opening up there is a risk that the Russians and the Chinese will be more active.”
Nato diplomats have said some alliance members have floated suggestions including launching a new mission in the region, deploying more equipment or holding exercises, but talks are at an early stage and there are no concrete plans.
Rutte did not address Trump’s comments on Greenland, but said he welcomed other allies’ “discussions on how we can basically [come] together as an alliance”. Denmark was also “speeding up their investments when it comes to defence”, he added.
The EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said on Monday it would be the end of Nato if the US used military force to take Greenland, adding that EU states would be obliged to come to Denmark’s aid if it faced aggression.
“I agree with the Danish prime minister that it will be the end of Nato,” Kubilius told Reuters at a conference in Sweden. He said article 42.7 of the EU treaty, the bloc’s mutual assistance clause, would oblige members to act in the event of an attack.
“It will depend on very much on Denmark, how they will react, what will be their position,” he said. “But definitely there is such an obligation of member states to come for mutual assistance if another member state is facing military aggression.”
The article has only been activated once so far, when France called for assistance after the 2015 Bataclan terrorist attack, and experts have questioned whether Greenland, which is outside the EU, would qualify without a change to EU’s legal order.
A group of US senators including Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who last week said taking Greenland “should not be on [the US’s] list”, are also due to visit Copenhagen to meet politicians from the Danish parliament’s Greenland committee.
The chair of the committee, Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician sitting in the Danish parliament, told reporters the planned meeting was “good news” as it was “important for us to use all the diplomatic connections we have at our disposal”.
Chemnitz said “lots” of incorrect claims were circulating about Greenland, and it was “absolutely crucial we get some truths on the table”. She declined to give more information about the meeting, saying details were yet to be fully decided.
Germany’s former vice-chancellor Robert Habeck suggested Greenland should be offered an EU membership to fend off US interest in the territory. Writing in the Guardian, Habeck called for a “pragmatic and phased” proposal.
“This should be the moment to explicitly offer EU membership to Greenland, and by extension to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway,” he said in an article with Andreas Raspotnik of Nord University in Norway.
Greenland withdrew from what was then the European Community in 1985, after gaining home rule from Denmark in 1979, but the world had “entirely altered” since then and “Europe should respond accordingly”, they said.
China on Monday criticised the US interest in Greenland. “The Arctic concerns the overall interests of the international community,” the Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Mao Ning, said at a press conference.
She said China’s activities in the Arctic aimed to promote peace, stability, and sustainable development in the region and called for the rights and freedoms of all nations to conduct lawful activities in the Arctic to be respected.
