White House has labeled the purchase of Danish territory a “national security priority” as European allies unite in defense of Copenhagen, warning alliance is at stake.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Donald Trump is actively exploring “a range of options” including the potential use of the U.S. military to acquire Greenland, dramatically escalating a diplomatic standoff with European allies and threatening the cohesion of NATO.
In a statement to the BBC, the administration declared the acquisition of the vast, semi-autonomous Arctic island from Denmark a “national security priority.”
The statement explicitly noted that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal,” marking a stark hardening of rhetoric over the territorial proposition.
The move triggered an immediate and unified transatlantic rebuke. The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a powerful joint statement defending Denmark’s sovereignty.
“Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations,” the statement read. It stressed that Arctic security, while a shared concern, must be achieved “collectively” by NATO allies and demanded adherence to the UN Charter’s principles of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”
The crisis was ignited over the weekend when President Trump reiterated that the U.S. “needed” Greenland for strategic reasons.
Prime Minister Frederiksen had already warned that any U.S. attack on Danish territory would mean “the end of NATO” a warning that now looms over the White House’s latest military allusion.
