Carla Sands, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark and Greenland, told Newsmax on Wednesday that recent election results in Greenland could signal openness to a deal with President Donald Trump, who said would like to acquire the Danish territory.
"It's really a new day in Greenland," Sands said on "Wake Up America." "You can see 84% of the people that live there want to go independent. Some of them want it now and that's the party that just lost with about 24.5% of the vote. But the party that won almost 30% is … that party that is pro-growth, pro-business. And it's a center-right party, which Greenland's always been a little more, in my time, center-left or hard left, more Marxist. And so this is really exciting because President Trump wants to make a deal.
"If Greenland is going independent, and Greenlanders want prosperity, there's no better partner to have than the United States, and they can cut a good deal. And certainly in the way that Greenlanders prefer, because the United States can defend Greenland and we can also help them develop it. Denmark … they're incapable of defending or developing Greenland. They've never shown an interest in … really developing Greenland. It's just been kind of languishing with welfare payments from Denmark every year of about $600 million."
During Trump's address last week to a joint session of Congress, he spoke to Greenlanders directly about the prospect of joining the U.S. Sands said Trump was "making an opening offer" to the island's people.
"This is very upsetting and unsettling to Denmark because Greenland has been part of their kingdom, but, like I said before, Denmark can't afford to develop or defend Greenland," Sands said. "It's like owning an asset you can't afford to own. And certainly we love Denmark. They're great NATO allies and they've been diplomatic partners for over 200 years, but reality is reality and the status quo is unsustainable."
Sands called Trump's suggestion "common sense" because China has been "trying to make inroads in Greenland," while Russia has also taken an interest in the territory's affairs.
"[China] tried to bring [Greenland] into their Belt and Road Initiative, and Chinese and Russian ships are all around Greenland and subs," she said. "And then we have the Russians doing things like cutting their undersea cables. They're not able to defend against this, while the United States has the capacity to defend and harden Greenland's defense in the seas around Greenland."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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