Trump ramps up threats to seize Greenland

By Ryan ​Patrick Jones 

The United States needs to ‍own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future, ​President Donald Trump says.

“We are going to do something on Greenland ⁠whether they like it or not. Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbour,” Trump told reporters on Friday at the White House while ‌meeting with oil ​company executives.

Trump said the US must acquire Greenland, even though ‍it already has a military presence on the island under a 1951 agreement, because such deals are not enough to guarantee Greenland’s defence. The island of 57,000 people is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

“You defend ownership. You don’t ​defend leases. And we’ll have to defend ‌Greenland. If we don’t do it, China or Russia will,” Trump said.

Trump and White House officials ​have been discussing various plans to bring Greenland under US control, ‍including potential use of the US military and lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede ​from ​Denmark and potentially join the US.

Leaders ​in Copenhagen and throughout Europe have ​reacted with disdain in recent days to comments by Trump and other White House officials asserting their right to Greenland. The US and Denmark are NATO allies bound by a mutual defence agreement.

On Tuesday, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain and Denmark issued a joint statement, saying only Greenland and Denmark can decide matters ‍regarding their relations.

Meanwhile, in his most substantial critique of US, Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.

“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” Leo told ambassadors from around the world who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See.

Leo did not name individual countries that have resorted to force in his lengthy speech, the bulk of which he delivered in English in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French.

But his speech on Friday came amid the backdrop of the recent US military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolas Maduro from power, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The occasion was the Pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to his yearly foreign policy address.

In his first such encounter, history’s first US-born pope delivered much more than the traditional round-up of global hotspots.

In a fiery speech that touched on threats to religious freedom and the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and surrogacy, Leo lamented how the United Nations and multilateralism as a whole were increasingly under threat.

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” he said.

“The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.

“Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion.

“This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.”

Leo did refer explicitly to tensions in Venezuela, calling for a peaceful political solution that keeps in mind the “common good of the peoples and not the defence of partisan interests”.

The US military seized Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, in a surprise raid.

The US government has insisted Maduro’s capture was legal, saying drug cartels operating from Venezuela amounted to unlawful combatants and that the US is now in an “armed conflict” with them.

Analysts and some world leaders have condemned the Venezuela mission, warning that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.

On Ukraine, Leo repeated his appeal for an immediate ceasefire and urgently called for the international community “not to waver in its commitment to pursuing just and lasting solutions”.

On Gaza, Leo repeated the Holy See’s call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted on the Palestinians’ right to live in Gaza and the West Bank “in their own land”.