NATO in fear
Rubio: Trump really wants to annex Greenland
US Secretary of State Marc Rubio has confirmed that President Donald Trump really does want to annex the world's largest island. Now the worried NATO wants to make the Republican an offer.
"This is no joke," Rubio announced in an interview with SiriusXM Radio on Thursday. According to him, however, Trump wants to buy the huge island, which belongs to the EU country Denmark - and not make it part of the United States by military force.
"President Trump has laid out what he wants to do, and that is to buy it," Rubio explained about Greenland. It is not about acquiring land. Greenland becoming part of the USA is "in our national interest" and the matter "must be resolved".
China poses a threat
Rubio justified this with his concern that China could increase its influence in Greenland with the aim of gaining access to the Arctic region via state-owned companies. This was "absolutely realistic" and China had already acted in this way "at the Panama Canal and elsewhere".
With regard to the guarantee of protection for Denmark, which the USA carries as part of the joint NATO membership, Rubio said: "If we are already responsible for doing this, then we might as well have more control over what happens there."
NATO representatives plan offer to Trump
Within the alliance, there are now plans to propose to Trump a significant expansion of the allied military presence in the Arctic. As the German Press Agency has learned from alliance circles, it is hoped that this will defuse the discussion surrounding Greenland's membership of Denmark.
According to the military alliance, the security interests of the USA could also be satisfied by a significantly stronger NATO presence in the region. Especially as the Americans could of course also participate in the increased presence. In principle, Trump is right to be concerned about Greenland in view of Russian and Chinese activities in the Arctic.
Greenland is strategically interesting due to its wealth of raw materials and as a base for military control of the Arctic. In addition, shipping routes are becoming more accessible with increasing climate change, at least in summer.
Trump's statements frighten allies
Trump's interest in Greenland is causing a stir and a stomach ache, particularly because he recently did not rule out military and economic coercion in order to gain control over the largest island on earth, which is largely autonomous but officially belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark. NATO partner Denmark points out that the Greenlanders themselves decide on their future and their possible independence from the Danish kingdom. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen recently held numerous crisis talks with the heads of state and government of other European NATO states. The Greenlandic government has repeatedly emphasized that it wants to be neither Danish nor American, but Greenlandic.
NATO threatens super-GAU
The Greenland debate is highly explosive for NATO. On the one hand, the alliance must fear for its credibility if a leading member suddenly threatens to annex the territory of another country by force - especially in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and China's claims to Taiwan. On the other hand, it would be a super-GAU for NATO if the USA were to leave the alliance in a dispute over such an issue, because NATO's deterrence is based primarily on its nuclear arsenal and the strength of the USA's conventional armed forces.
According to diplomats, whether the plans for an offer to Trump can be implemented will depend, among other things, on whether the Republican is really primarily concerned with American security interests in the region. If raw material deposits also play a role, the initiative could be doomed to failure.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.