By Nkiruka Nnorom, with agency reports
UNITED States President, Donald Trump, has tied his ambitions to annex Greenland to his unsuccessful bid for a Nobel Peace Prize, which he has long coveted.
In an extraordinary message to Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump said he no longer feels bound to think purely of Peace because the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not award him the Nobel Peace Prize.
The new was first reported by PBS and confirmed by an official in the Norwegian prime minister’s office.
“Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
Støre said he received the message in response to a text he and Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, sent Trump, in which the Nordic leaders conveyed their opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries.”
He said in a statement that he had “clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the (Nobel Peace) prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.”
Trump’s missive came after he threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on goods from several European countries over their opposition to his plan to acquire Greenland, an autonomous part of Denmark, a fellow NATO member, from February 1. Trump’s threats have rattled NATO as the alliance based on collective defense confronts the prospect that one member might use force against another.
“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” Trump said in his message.
“I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland,” Trump said in his note to Støre.
Although the US has been the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security for decades, and spent far more on defense in that period than any other NATO member, many NATO allies participated in recent US wars. Forty-three Danes died fighting in Afghanistan following the 2001 invasion.
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