A reporter at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta tried to stir up trouble on Saturday, asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio whether President Trump had “misunderstood” the Greenland agreement or whether the people of Denmark and Greenland had. Rubio did not take the bait.
“Suffice it to say we have a very good deal,” Rubio said. “One the president is fully apprised of. He understands and is very supportive of it. And it builds on what we’ve done there for a long time.”
The key, Rubio said, is that the deal shuts the door on America’s rivals for good. It ensures “that never do we have to worry about, irrespective of the decision Greenland makes, if they one day go independent or continue to be a part of the Kingdom of Denmark… it being a place where a potential adversary, through commercial means, can gain access to things that would be harmful to any of our countries.”
“Where it is geographically, which is what the President is always focused on when it comes to Greenland, is national security,” Rubio said. “It has always played a critical role in national security. It is more pronounced now, not just because of defenses against missiles, but because of the Arctic.”
“We now have an agreement in place that will exist in perpetuity that ensures not just the equities of North America, meaning the United States and Canada, but all of our partners in NATO as well,” Rubio said. “We think it’s a very positive deal, and one that I think gave us what the President was most interested in, and that is protecting not just the national security of the United States, but the security of our allies.”
The critics laughed when President Trump first talked about Greenland. Now America has a permanent deal that keeps the Arctic out of hostile hands. That is what putting America First looks like.
