Trump ramps up threats to seize Greenland
發佈日期: 2026-01-10 21:50
TVB News
US President Donald Trump has ramped up his threats to annex Greenland and said a deal will be made for the United States to acquire it - in an "easy way" or "hard way."
Meanwhile, the Italian prime minister has dismissed the idea of an American military takeover of Greenland.
During an event at the White House on Friday, Donald Trump told reporters that the United States will "have to defend Greenland" and will own the territory "the easy way" or "the hard way" in a bid to enhance American security and explore business and mining deals.
When asked about their consideration of paying Greenlanders for their agreement to be part of the US, Trump said he's not talking about money for Greenland yet.
(Reporter: A policy question. How much money are you thinking of giving people in Greenland to get them on board with a possible US takeover?)
Trump said: "I'm not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that. But right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not. Because if we don't do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we're not going to have Russia or China as a neighbour."
Both the governments of Greenland and Denmark have made clear that the world's largest island is not for sale, but the White House said it is weighing "options" that could include military action to take over the strategically-located island.
It faced backlash from Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, who warned that an American annexation would spell the end of the NATO military alliance.
To that, Trump claimed he's the one that saved NATO.
He said: "And by the way and NATO's got to understand that I'm all for NATO. I saved NATO. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have NATO right now."
Danish and Greenlandic envoys met with officials from the United States on Thursday. They are set to hold talks next week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday she still doesn't believe in the hypothesis that the United States will attack Greenland militarily to take control of it, stressing Italy would not support such a move. She warned this would bring significant consequences for NATO as well as broader transatlantic security.
Meloni said the takeover does not comply with the interests of the United States.
