Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during an interview that President Trump’s wish to acquire the Arctic island Greenland is serious and rooted in national security concerns for both the rest of the world and the U.S. amid China’s interest in the region.
“But this is not a joke, like what he’s saying is pretty accurate. People have been talking about it for years. This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest, and it needs to be solved,” Rubio said during his Thursday interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly. “President Trump’s put out there what he intends to do, which is to purchase it.”
Rubio asserted while China does not have a heavy Arctic presence, it is “realistic” to believe that Beijing would “install facilities that give them access to the Arctic with the cover of a Chinese company, but that in reality, to serve a dual purpose, that in a moment of conflict, they could send naval vessels to that facility and operate from there.”
In recent months, Trump has expressed interest privately and publicly in acquiring Greenland. He said previously that Denmark would eventually “come along” with the potential sale of the planet’s largest island, which is rich in rare minerals.
“We don’t want to be Danes,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede previously said on Fox News. “We don’t even want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had a “fiery” call with Trump on Jan. 15 that devolved into a confrontation as the two discussed the president’s desire to buy the island.
