President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants negotiations to acquire Greenland, portraying the effort as a strategic necessity while insisting he does not want to use military force.
"People thought I would use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force," Trump said in remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump, however, also said on Wednesday that the United States will not forget the slight if a deal on Greenland is not reached.
"So we want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won't give it," he said. "We've never asked for anything else, and we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn't. So [you] have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember."
"All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it as a [territory] but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago, after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, and others in World War II," said Trump. "We gave it back to them."
Trump's speech to the world leaders, airing on Newsmax and Newsmax2 comes as tensions are high between the U.S. and Europe over the president's demands on Greenland, a semiautonomous Arctic island and territory of Denmark.
He has threatened eight European Union nations, including Denmark, with stiff tariffs if a deal is not reached with the U.S. to acquire the land.
On Wednesday, Trump insisted that "no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the U.S.
"We're a great power, much greater than people even understand," Trump said.
He described Greenland as strategically located between major powers.
"Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia, and China," he said.
He added that U.S. policy has long been to prevent outside threats from entering the Western Hemisphere.
"This enormous, unsecured island is part of North America on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere," he said. "That is our territory. It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America."
He used World War II to support his claim that Denmark could not defend Greenland and said the U.S. built bases there at significant cost.
"We saw this in World War II when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland," Trump said.
"So the United States was then compelled to send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory, and hold it," Trump said. "We did at great cost and expense... we literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark. We weren't fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark."
He said the U.S. should not have returned Greenland after the war and accused Denmark of failing to invest in defenses.
"After the war, which we won, we won it big," he said. "After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that, but we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?"
He also cited a past Danish pledge to strengthen defenses on the island.
"In 2019 Denmark said that it would spend over $200 million to strengthen Greenland's defenses," Trump said. "As you know, they spent less than 1% of that amount. 1%. No sign of Denmark there."
Trump said his interest is primarily security-focused, not about minerals.
"Everyone talks about the minerals," he said. "That's not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security."
Trump said he wants talks "immediately" and said an acquisition would strengthen NATO security, while also complaining about the alliance's burden-sharing.
"That's the reason I'm seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States," he said.
"This would not be a threat to NATO. This would greatly enhance the security of the entire alliance, the NATO alliance."
Trump, answering questions after his speech, said that it is "costing Denmark hundreds of millions" of dollars a year to keep Greenland as a territory.
"It's a very big piece of ice and it's very important," Trump said. "It's very important that we use that for nationals and international security that can create a power that will make it impossible for the bad guys to do anything against the perceived good ones."
Denmark, he added, "was supposed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars" to defend Greenland, but "didn't spend anything."
Newsmax's Sandy Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
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