Rufus Gifford, the former US ambassador to Denmark, said in an interview on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance would be forced to respond to any invasion of Greenland.
“I think what's often forgotten here is that Greenland is NATO because the Kingdom of Denmark is one of the founding members of NATO,” Gifford told MSNBC's “The Sunday Show with In an interview with Jonathan Capehart.
He continued: “For all the talk about national security concerns for Greenland, any invasion or incursion into Greenland would force the entire Alliance to respond.”
Gifford's comments come in response to Vice President-elect J.D. Vance's remarks about Greenland on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend, in which he said, “We already have troops in Greenland, It was issued in response to the statement that there was no need to use force. ”
“Greenland is of great strategic importance to the United States,” Vance continued in Sunday's interview. “We have a lot of great natural resources, and we need to make sure that Greenland is treated properly from a U.S. national security perspective, but frankly speaking, the current leadership, the Danish government, is very concerned about the security of Greenland. We are not doing a good enough job of securing it.”
President Trump has previously said U.S. control of Greenland, an autonomous island within the Kingdom of Denmark, is “absolutely necessary” and has argued that the island is important to U.S. national security.
Last week, he did not rule out using military force in efforts to capture Greenland, but said in response to a question: “I'm not going to commit to that.” There may be something you need to do. ”
Gifford criticized the way Trump and Vance discussed the issue, saying they lacked “the diplomatic humanity that is needed in these relationships.”
“Look, Denmark is one of our longest-standing allies, and we've lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other country in the world except the United States. And… foreign policy is swayed by tweets and press conferences. When you do that, you just lose the sense of humanity, the centuries-old sense of humanity that we really need to focus on here.”
