Nato’s top military commander said the alliance was ready, if asked, to plan a mission to protect the Arctic, after US President Donald Trump announced a framework deal he said satisfied his demands on Greenland.
“We’ve done no planning yet. We have not received political guidance to move out,” US General Alexus Grynkewich, Nato’s supreme commander for Europe, said after a meeting of alliance top brass.
“We’re doing some thinking about how we would organise for it — no planning has started yet, but we’re ready.”
Launching a Nato mission in the Arctic has been floated as a possible solution after Trump used the perceived threat from Russia and China to justify his desire to take Greenland.
Trump climbed down from his threats against the territory after claiming a deal had been struck in talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte in Davos on Wednesday.
Details remain scant on exactly what, if anything, has been agreed — but Nato said part of the plan was for the alliance to look at boosting security in the Arctic.
Grynkewich said no Nato exercises were planned on Greenland in the near future, but that the alliance would hold long-scheduled drills elsewhere in the Arctic.
He played down concerns that Trump’s threats against Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark, a fellow Nato member — had damaged the 32-nation alliance.
“We remain strong, we remain united, and we remain ready,” Grynkewich said.
Meanwhile, Greenland’s deputy prime minister on Thursday said that any attempt to hand over its territory would be “unacceptable”, after US President Donald Trump announced a framework agreement on the island’s future with the head of Nato.
“Whatever pressure others may exert, our country will neither be given away, nor will our future be gambled with,” Deputy Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a post on Facebook.
“It is unacceptable to attempt to hand our land to others. This is our land — we are the ones who shape its future,” Egede added.
Nato chief Mark Rutte cannot negotiate on behalf of Denmark over Greenland, the Danish government said, a day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal following talks between the two men.
Trump backed down on threats to seize Greenland by force after meeting Rutte, saying he had reached a “framework” of a deal on the Danish autonomous territory. — Agencies
