BRUSSELS, April 4. /TASS/. The United States will not allow China to gain influence over Greenland, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, adding meanwhile that if the island wants independence, Denmark should not stand in its way.
"At some point the Greenlanders have made it clear that they want to be independent of Denmark. Denmark should focus on the fact that Greenland doesn’t want to be a part of Denmark. We didn’t give them that idea, they’ve been talking about that for a long time. Whenever they make that decision, they’ll make that decision. What we are going to do is not let China come in now and offer them a bunch of money and become dependent on China," he told a news conference following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
The meeting was broadcast by the C-SPAN TV channel.
Rubio emphasized that the United States respects Greenland’s right to self-determination. Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s words that Washington does not rule out a military scenario against the island, Rubio clarified that the American leader was referring to a hypothetical situation where Greenland was attacked by China or another country.
"If they make that decision, the United States would stand ready potentially to step in and say "OK, we can create a partnership with you," he said.
Trump has repeatedly stated that Greenland should become a part of the United States. He previously threatened to impose high trade duties on Denmark if it did not give up the island, and during his first term, he even offered to buy Greenland. Denmark and Greenland rejected the idea as absurd.
Greenland is an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to allied commitments to NATO, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty, under which the United States committed to defend the island from acts of aggression. Greenland hosts the American Pituffik space base, which plays a key role in early-warning missile detection and Arctic surveillance.
