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WASHINGTON, Jan 07 (APP):US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers Tuesday that President Donald Trump aims to buy Greenland — a semi-autonomous region of fellow NATO member Denmark — and is not planning an imminent military invasion, according to a media report.
Rubio, the top American diplomat, made his remarks in a briefing on Monday with lawmakers from the main armed services and foreign policy committees in both chambers of Congress, The New York Times reported.
The same day, Trump asked his aides to give him an updated plan for acquiring the territory, the newspaper reported citing US officials.
The congressional briefing was focused on Venezuela, but lawmakers raised concerns about Trump’s intentions on Greenland given aggressive remarks this week by the American president and a top aide, Stephen Miller, the Times said.
Rubio did not go into detail on what he meant by buying Greenland. Trump spent decades in New York as a real estate developer, and one of his top diplomatic envoys, Steve Witkoff, comes from the same background. Trump has coveted Greenland since his first term.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the administration’s approach to Greenland “is all about negotiations,” adding that the US needs “legal control and legal protections” to justify building up the territory and putting Americans on the ground, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the White House said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was discussing a “range of options” for acquiring Greenland, including utilizing the US military.
“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” Leavitt added.
The statement came following Trump’s repeated proposals to acquire the island for strategic purposes.
A day after the US military operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro Saturday, Trump renewed his call for a takeover of Greenland in the interest of “national security.”
On Sunday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
“We need Greenland, from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he had said when asked about any potential US action against Greenland.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark and has repeatedly rejected proposals suggesting any transfer of sovereignty to the US.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has urged Trump to “stop the threats.”
The Danish statement came hours after European leaders issued a joint statement rallying behind Denmark. The nations that aligned with Denmark were Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, all of which are close allies of the United States.
“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” they said. “These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.”
“Greenland belongs to its people,” they added. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Some lawmakers voiced concern about Trump’s stated plans. On Tuesday evening, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, and Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, issued a joint statement saying the U.S. government must respect its allies.
“When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honour its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” said the senators, who lead the Senate NATO Observer Group.
“Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our alliance exists to defend,” they added.