Rubio on buying Greenland: 'This is not a joke'
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.
"I wasn't privy to that phone call, but I imagine the phone call went the way a lot of these phone calls go, and that is, he just speaks bluntly and frankly with people," Rubio said on Thursday. "And ultimately, I think diplomacy, in many cases, works better when you're straightforward, as opposed to using platitudes and language that translates to nothing."
Rubio also said that if Greenland would come under assault by China, Denmark would not be able to deter the East Asian country.
“Denmark can't stop them. They would rely on the United States to do so,” Rubio said. “And so his point is, if the United States is on the hook to provide as we are now, we have a defense agreement with them to protect Greenland, if it comes under assault, if we're already on the hook for having to do that, then we might as well have more control over what happens there.”
This week, Denmark announced that it would bolster defense spending for the Arctic island with a $2 billion security package that contains long-range drones and new Arctic ships.
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