Trump on Greenland annexation: 'I think it will happen'

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his desire to annex the autonomous territory of Greenland from Denmark in the interest of “international security.”

“I think it will happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, when asked about his vision for the annexation. He pointed at Rutte and added the Nato chief could be “very instrumental” in the move.

“You know Mark, we need that for international security... we have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful,” he said, apparently referring to rising Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic region. Trump´s threats to take over the resource-rich Arctic island have shined an unprecedented global spotlight on the territory, as he has previously refused to rule out the use of force to “get Greenland.”

The US president´s comments come days after Greenland´s elections, with all the political parties, and the majority of the island´s 57,000 inhabitants, backing independence -- though they disagree on how quickly the process should go.