US President Donald Trump has been discussing “a range of options” to acquire Greenland, including the use of the military, the White House said.
In a statement, the White House told the BBC that acquiring Greenland was a “national security priority”.
It comes after Trump repeated over the weekend that the US “needed” Greenland – a semi-autonomous region of fellow Nato member Denmark – for security reasons.
The White House statement was also issued hours after European leaders rallied behind Denmark, whose Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, warned on Monday that any attack by the US would spell the end of Nato.
The White House said on Tuesday: “The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal.”
NATO is a trans-Atlantic military group where allies are expected to go to each other’s aid in case of external attacks.
On Tuesday, six European allies backed Denmark in a joint statement.
“Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations,” the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark said.
Stressing they were as keen as the US in Arctic security, the European signatories of the joint statement said this must be achieved by Nato allies, including the US “collectively”.
They also called for “upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed the statement and called for “respectful dialogue”.
“The dialogue must take place with respect for the fact that Greenland’s status is rooted in international law and the principle of territorial integrity,” Nielsen said.
The issue of Greenland’s future resurfaced in the wake of the US military intervention in Venezuela, during which elite troops went in to seize the country’s President Nicolás Maduro and take him to face drugs and weapons charges in New York.
A day after that raid, Katie Miller – the wife of one of Trump’s senior aides – posted a map on social media of Greenland in the colours of the American flag, alongside the word “SOON”.
On Monday, her husband Stephen Miller said it was “the formal position of the US government that Greenland should be part of the US”.
In an interview with CNN, he also said the US “is the power of Nato. For the US to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend Nato and Nato interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the US.”
Asked repeatedly whether the US would rule out using force to annex it, Miller responded: “Nobody’s going to fight the US over the future of Greenland.”
Trump floated his ambition of acquiring Greenland as a strategic US hub in the Arctic during his first presidential term, saying in 2019: “Essentially it’s a large real estate deal.”
There is growing interest from Russia and China in the region as melting ice raises the possibility of new trade routes.
In March last year Trump said America would “go as far as we have to go” to get control of the territory.
During a congressional hearing last summer, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked if the Pentagon had plans to take Greenland by force if necessary.
“Our job at the Defence Department is to have plans for any contingency,” Hegseth told a lawmaker.
Greenland, which has a population of 57,000 people, has had extensive self-government since 1979, though defence and foreign policy remain in Danish hands.
While most Greenlanders favour eventual independence from Denmark, opinion polls show overwhelming opposition to becoming part of the US.
Morgan Angaju, 27, an Inuit living in Ilulissat in the west of the country, told the BBC it had been “terrifying to listen to the leader of the free world laughing at Denmark and Greenland and just talking about us like we’re something to claim”.
“We are already claimed by the Greenlandic people. Kalaallit Nunaat means the land of the Greenlandic people,” Morgan said.
He added that he was worried about what happens next – wondering whether Greenland’s prime minister may suffer the same fate as Maduro – or even about the US “invading our country”.
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