Trump won’t get control of Greenland under new Nato deal, Foreign Secretary confirms
The deal that led Donald Trump to cool down his threats to take over Greenland involves a new Nato operation in the Arctic, the Foreign Secretary has revealed.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4, Yvette Cooper said the creation of an ‘Arctic sentry’ has been proposed to maintain shared security in the vital region.
The plans would ensure Greenland and Denmark keep their sovereignty over the territory, she added.
If confirmed, the agreement would represent an extraordinary climbdown from the US President, who has previously insisted he would settle for nothing less than total control.
In his speech to the World Economic Forum yesterday afternoon, Trump said: ‘I have tremendous respect for the people of Denmark. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend its own territory.
‘The fact is, no nation or group of nations is no position to secure Greenland other than the United States.’
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But hours later, he announced the ‘concept of a deal’ following a meeting with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.
This morning, Cooper said: ‘What we have proposed is a work through Nato on a new Arctic sentry, which is similar to – we already have through Nato a Baltic sentry and an Eastern sentry.
‘Those are really combined operations, programmes, that draw together Nato countries to work on a shared threat.’
She also confirmed she was ‘not aware of any discussions’ that would lead to the US getting rights to the minerals beneath Greenland’s icy surface.
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