US President Donald Trump has insisted “we have to have Greenland”, a day after appointing a special envoy to the vast Arctic island — a move that sparked outrage among his European allies.
Trump said his interest in the geopolitically crucial island of just 57,000 inhabitants, which is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark and located in North America, was not down to its rare minerals and mining opportunities.
“If you take a look at Greenland, up and down the coast, you have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it,” he told a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday.