Britain is in talks with NATO to counter Russia and China in the Arctic
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the talks were “business as usual” rather than a response to US President Donald Trump’s latest threats to seize Greenland.
Trump said Friday he wants to strike a deal to buy Greenland, the semi-autonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent a Russia or China takeover.
“We’re going to do something in Greenland whether they want it or not,” Trump said Friday.
Greenland, with a population of approximately 57,000, is protected by Denmark, whose army is overshadowed by the United States, which has a military base on the island. The Danish prime minister warned that the takeover would threaten NATO.
Alexander said Britain agreed with Trump that Russia and China were becoming increasingly competitive in the Arctic Circle.
“Even though we haven’t seen the dire consequences in that part of the world as we’ve seen in Ukraine, it’s really important that we do everything we can, together with all our NATO allies, to make sure that we have an effective deterrent against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in that part of the world,” Alexander told the BBC. Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the US who was sacked last year over his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, said he did not think Trump would seize Greenland by force.
“He’s not an idiot,” Mandelson said. “We will all have to wake up to the fact that the Arctic needs to be secured against China and Russia. And if you ask me who will lead the effort to secure that security, we all know it will be the United States, right?”
Liberal Democrat Party leader Ed Davey suggested Britain offer to send troops to Greenland under joint command with Denmark.
“If Trump is serious about security, he would agree to participate and drop his outrageous threats,” Davey said. “Smashing the NATO alliance will only benefit Putin.”
It is unclear how the remaining NATO members would react if the United States decided to seize control of the island by force or come to Denmark’s aid.
