Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands told Newsmax Friday that President-elect Donald Trump's interest in purchasing Greenland may be a "real threat to the Kingdom of Denmark," but U.S. acquisition of the territory is a "common-sense solution" to combating the presence of China and Russia in the region.
Sands explained to Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that Greenland is a country that falls under the umbrella of Danish control.
"Denmark is a kingdom, and it has three countries: Denmark, the small country; and then the Faroe Islands, which is a very small chain of islands … near the Scottish Shetland Islands, north of Scotland; and then it has Greenland, which is one-third the size of the continental U.S.," she said. "It's actually part of North America."
"Our U.S. military, we actually controlled Greenland during World War II," she continued. "We built all of their airports, infrastructure, buildings — everything that was in Greenland that was modern was built by our U.S. military when we occupied Greenland during World War II. We had a presence there up until the Cold War, and then we had that peace dividend and left Greenland — turned everything basically over to Denmark and just closed up shop."
Trump's proposal to buy Greenland is a "real threat to the Kingdom of Denmark because what makes them a major player is that they have control of Greenland, largely because they control their foreign policy and their defense policy."
Looking at Denmark itself, Sands said, the country of approximately 5.5 million people doesn't "have the resources to develop Greenland."
"There is no development there," she said. "I mean, Denmark helped to fund some airports in Greenland when the Chinese government tried to fund and construct them several years ago, but there's no road between any town in Greenland. There's zero infrastructure, basically, and it's a gigantic area. So the idea that little Denmark, which can't even defend its own territory … can defend Greenland, is preposterous."
"They can't afford to defend it, and they can't afford to develop it," Sands continued. "There's no development. … He's the third U.S. president to make this proposal. It's a common-sense solution to a thorny problem of what do you do with a giant territory that is not defendable and not developable by this small country, Denmark, and it's part of North America? And so, just like he's talking to Canada, well, Greenland is just right by us and Canada. The idea that we would leave it unprotected, that a president like President Trump that says America first, meaning we don't want adversaries controlling this large body with a lot of resources and a lot of critical minerals just off our coast, it's not going to happen."
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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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