Marco Rubio says he will sit down with Danish officials next week following the Trump administration's assertion that it was looking to acquire Greenland. The US secretary of state confirmed the upcoming meeting in Washington but sidestepped questions about whether the Trump administration might use force to gain control of the Arctic island.
- "I'm not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention, I'll be meeting with them next week," he said. "We'll have those conversations with them then, but I don't have anything further to add to that."
- Rubio noted that Trump has spoken about acquiring Greenland since his first term. "That's always been the president's intent from the very beginning. He's not the first US president that has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland."
The AP reports Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, had requested a meeting with Rubio, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland's government website. Previous requests for a meeting were not successful, the statement said. The Guardian reports that France on Tuesday said it was consulting with allies on a possible reaction should a US invasion come to pass. . "We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners," French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in an interview.
CNBC reports Danish Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Troels Lund Poulsen on Tuesday said Denmark planned to spend $13.8 billion to rearm Greenland given "the serious security situation we find ourselves in. I hope that the United States also recognizes that fact and is ready to cooperate on our common interest in Arctic security. Because Denmark would like to continue to be an ally of the United States. But that requires a mutual willingness to show respect and cooperation."
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