US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has ruled out taking Greenland by force but has demanded “immediate negotiations” to discuss the annexation of the territory.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Trump said the United States would be “unstoppable” if he decided to use “excessive strength and force”, but ruled out taking Greenland with military intervention.
The US president said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States, just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history, as many of the European nations have”.
Trump went on to say: “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable.
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“But I won’t do that.
“I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.”
He added: “This would not be a threat to Nato. This would greatly enhance the security of the alliance.”
In his address at the summit, Trump accused Denmark of being “ungrateful” after the US defended it and Greenland in the Second World War.
At the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps, the US president said: “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it, but we gave it back.
“But how ungrateful are they now?”
Trump said “now our country and the world face much greater risks than it did ever before”, pointing to Russian and Chinese missiles.
He continued: “Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia and China.”
He cited rare earth minerals sitting under the territory’s ice, but continued: “That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security.”
“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere, that’s our territory.
“It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America.”
He went on to say that the US alone can “develop” and “improve” Greenland.
Trump said: “It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it and make it so that it’s good for Europe and safe for Europe, and good for us.”
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