Trump tells Norway he no longer feels obligation to think only of peace
by John Ireland
PARIS/OSLO, January 19 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump, in his letter to the Norwegian prime minister, said that he no longer felt obliged to “only think about Peace” since he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and reiterated his demand for control of Greenland.
The letter, seen by Reuters, was said to be in response to a brief message from Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finnish President Alexander Stubb to Trump opposing the US decision to impose tariffs on European allies for not allowing them to take control of Greenland.
Trump wrote in his letter: “Given that your country has decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel obligated to think only about Peace, although it has always been dominant, I can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Stoere said the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded Trump the peace prize, has repeatedly said that it is independent and that the Norwegian government has no control over the issue.
Trump publicly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded last year to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Machado presented Trump with his gold medal at a White House meeting last week, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award could not be transferred, shared or cancelled.
In his letter, Trump once again questioned Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, saying: “Denmark cannot protect these lands from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘property right’ anyway?”
“There are no written documents, it is just said that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats that landed there too.”
“The Earth is not safe unless we have Complete and Complete Control of Greenland,” Trump added.
Greenland, a large, mineral-rich Arctic island, is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
(Reporting by John Irish in Paris, additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, writing by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones)
