Trump annexation of Greenland ‘would be end of Nato’, says Chris Murphy

Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland represents an existential crisis for NATO, senior Democratic US senator Chris Murphy has warned, with the demise of the decades-old alliance of western nations certain to follow any American military intervention.“It would be the end of NATO, right? NATO would have an obligation to defend Greenland,” the Connecticut senator and member of the chamber’s foreign relations committee said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. Murphy added that it would mean “clearly … we would be at war with Europe, with England, with France”.Murphy’s comments came as Trump ramped up his fixation with the Arctic territory, with the US president telling reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that “one way or the other, we are going to have Greenland”.Trump had ordered a plan to be drawn up for an invasion of Greenland, the Mail on Sunday reported, adding that “it is being resisted” by military leaders on grounds of illegality.Murphy’s assertion that a forceful US acquisition would be the end of NATO is shared by political leaders in Europe, notably Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark.Greenland is a former colony of Denmark and remains part of the Danish kingdom, with its foreign and security policy under the control of Copenhagen.On Sunday, Frederiksen accused the US of “turning its back on NATO” – and said this Wednesday’s meeting in Washington DC between the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, and US secretary of state Marco Rubio would be crucial.“We are at a crossroads, and this is a fateful moment,” Frederiksen said at a political rally.A bipartisan group of US senators, including Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, is planning to visit Copenhagen to meet politicians from the Danish parliament’s Greenland committee, it was announced Sunday.The pessimistic comments of Murphy and Frederiksen were echoed Monday by Andrius Kubilius, defense commissioner of the European Union, who noted that an EU treaty “obligated” member states to come to Denmark’s aid if faced with military action by Trump.“I agree with the Danish prime minister that it will be the end of NATO, but also among people it will be also very, very negative,” he told Reuters at a security conference in Sweden.“It will depend very much on Denmark, how they will react, what will be their position, but definitely there is such an obligation of member states to come for mutual assistance if another member state is facing military aggression.”Murphy, meanwhile, accused Trump of trying to distract the American people over Greenland and other actions, including the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, a promise that US companies would control Venezuela’s oil, and the construction of a ballroom at the White House.“Let’s also talk about what’s at stake here,” Murphy said. “The president is spending every single day thinking about invading Greenland, managing the Venezuelan economy, building a ballroom.“He is not thinking about the American people at all. This month, health insurance premiums on 22 million Americans are going up, doubling in some cases. Kids aren’t able to eat three meals because the Trump administration has slashed food assistance.“And so every single day, the president is thinking about Greenland, his ballroom, Venezuela. He is spending no time thinking about the actual crises that are being visited on American families. That is the underlying reality of a White House that has become out of control.”