America’s NATO allies say

European leaders issued a joint statement on Tuesday, highlighting the importance of security in the Arctic, but emphasizing that “Green Earth belongs to its people,” hours after White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said it was “the formal position of the United States government… that Greenland should be part of the United States.”

Miller also said, in an interview Monday with CNN, that “the United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and its interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States.”

Greenland has been a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark and has been linked to the small European nation for 300 years, although it has its own elected government. The largest island in the world, it is located northeast of Canada and is approximately the size of Sweden. It is largely covered by the Greenland ice sheet and is only home to about 60,000 people.

Its location between the United States, Russia and Europe makes it strategic for both economic and defense purposes, especially as melting sea ice has increased. opened new sea routes through the Arctic. It is also the location of the northernmost US military base.

“NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are stepping up. We and many other allies have increased our presence, activities and investments to keep the Arctic safe and deter adversaries,” the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greenland said in their joint statement on Tuesday.

“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, together with NATO allies, including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles and we will not fail to defend them. The United States is an essential partner in this effort, as a NATO ally and through the 1951 defense agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States,” the US allies said.

“Greenland belongs to its people. It is up to Denmark and Greenland, and only them, to decide on matters relating to Denmark and Greenland.”

On Monday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said a US military move to take control of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance.

“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything will stop,” Frederiksen told local media on Monday. “That is, including our NATO and therefore the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

When asked Tuesday whether the United States would use military force to take over GreenlandMiller told CNN: “The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There is no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you are asking, of a military operation. No one is going to fight the United States militarily for the future of Greenland.”

Some American lawmakers rejected the idea of ​​asserting American control over Greenland.

Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer and Republican Rep. Blake Moore, co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark group, said in a joint statement that “saber rattling over the annexation of Greenland is unnecessarily dangerous.”

They said any US attack on Greenland “would tragically be an attack on NATO.”

“We already have access to everything we could possibly need from Greenland,” the two lawmakers said, noting that Denmark’s government has already given the United States permission to deploy additional military forces there, or to build more missile defense infrastructure on the island.