At a press conference on Monday evening Danish time, US President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to take over Greenland.
The hour-and-a-half-long press conference was otherwise about the war against Iran, which the US is waging together with Israel.
Towards the end, Trump touched on NATO and criticized the alliance for not helping the US.
First, he referred to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as a "wonderful guy" who will visit Trump on Wednesday.
But NATO is a "paper tiger," Trump said, referring to a Chinese expression that covers a person or institution that appears intimidating on the outside but is not really that dangerous.
And then the topic turned to Greenland.
- It all started with Greenland, if you want the truth. We want Greenland. They won't give it to us, and I said goodbye ("bye-bye"), Trump concluded before leaving the press conference.
The president did not elaborate on his message further.
It was at the end of February this year that the US and Israel attacked Iran. Since then, Trump has tried to get help from the US's European allies.
He has declared that it will be bad for NATO if the European NATO countries do not help keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
But so far, the Europeans have said no because it is not a NATO operation, and Trump or his government have not clearly stated what the goal of the war is, or involved NATO in the planning.
Trump's interest in Greenland, on the other hand, goes back years.
It was in 2019 that he first expressed interest in buying Greenland.
Since then, it has resurfaced at regular intervals, but the conflict between the United States on the one hand and Greenland and Denmark on the other flared up in earnest in January this year.
Here, Trump reiterated his desire to gain control over Greenland, and initially did not rule out the use of military force.
In January, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) and the Greenlandic Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, met in Washington in January.
Here, the issue of Greenland was discussed with the US administration, including Vice President J.D. Vance.
/ritzau/
