A bipartisan, bicameral U.S. congressional delegation will visit Denmark later this week to meet with high-level officials from both Denmark and Greenland as President Donald Trump threatens to seize the Danish territory.
“I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But, if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re gonna do it the hard way,” Trump said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said a U.S. takeover of Greenland would effectively end NATO — both the U.S. and Denmark are members of the military alliance.
“We don’t think [a U.S. invasion of Greenland] is the most likely scenario because it’s simply too stupid,” Chairman Rasmus Jarlov of the Danish Parliament Defense Committee said.
Trump has argued that U.S. ownership of Greenland is necessary to protect Americans — citing concerns about competition with China and Russia for rare Earth minerals, shipping routes and strategic military positions in the Arctic.
“If we don’t do it, China or Russia will. Not gonna happen,” Trump said.
Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks, top-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is part of the nine-person delegation traveling to Denmark. He told Spectrum News he believes the move would negatively impact American safety.
“We share intelligence and information with one another to make us all safe. You break up the NATO alliance, we become less safe,” Meeks said. He added that he believes the move amounts to “colonialism.”
The trip is being led by Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons.
Coons wrote that, “Denmark has always been a strong diplomatic, economic, and security partner who sacrificed more lives than any other country relative to its population when the United States invoked Article 5 following the September 11 attacks. At a time of increasing international instability, we need to draw closer to our allies, not drive them away, and this delegation will send a clear message that Congress is committed to NATO and our network of alliances.”