Another threat faced by the autonomous Danish territory is Chinese expansion, according to the US president
US President Donald Trump has promised to defend Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, from both Russia and China. Moscow has not expressed aggressive intentions towards the island and has repeatedly denied Western claims of planning to attack NATO countries.
Trump has talked about making Greenland a part of the US since winning the presidential election in November, arguing that it is needed for security purposes. He has offered to buy the resource-rich Arctic territory from Copenhagen, but also does not rule out the use of force to bring it under American sovereignty.
A video published on the US president’s X accounts on Friday assured the 56,000 people living on the island that “America stands with Greenland.”
It recalled the cooperation between Washington and territory during the Second World War, stating that “Americans and Greenlanders stood as sentinels at the top of the world.”
“But today Greenland faces new threats from Russian aggression and Chinese expansion,” the clip claimed, consisting of archive WWII videos, images of Greenland’s landscape and footage of modern-day US military hardware.
The partnership between Greenland and the US “is not just history. It is destiny,” the video on Trump’s channel said. “Now is the time to stand together again – for peace, for security, for the future,” it added.
The post followed a visit to Greenland by US Vice President J.D. Vance earlier this week, during which he told some 150 US servicemen stationed on the island that Washington would be “investing in additional military icebreakers, investing in additional naval ships that will have a greater presence in Greenland.”
Vance blamed the Danish government for failing the people of Greenland, calling the island “extremely vulnerable right now,” and insisting it would be much safer “under the US umbrella.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that “Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic.” He said that the region’s “enormous potential” provides an opportunity for international cooperation in economic development, resource extraction, infrastructure projects and transport.
However, he mentioned that Russia is “concerned about the fact that NATO countries are increasingly often designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts,” and that Moscow is “closely monitoring developments in the region” and would move forward in “modernizing military infrastructure facilities.”