NATO Chief Mark Rutte on Greenland: ‘I Think, I Should Stay out of This’

EXCERPT:

RUTTE: "Well, clearly this is an issue which is being debated between the Danes and the U.S.. I know that Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, and the American president, that they have discussed this and are still discussing this, how to take this forward. So I think I should stay out of this. But there is a broader issue here, and that is the broader issue of the High North, the Arctic. And this is not only Greenland, this is also the U.S. itself with Alaska. It is, of course, Iceland and Norway and Finland and Sweden and Denmark because of Greenland. And we have to be aware of the fact that the Chinese are using now the High North to have their ships sailing there. We know that the Russians are rearming there. We know that we have a total lack of icebreakers within the alliance, so we have to ramp up there — anyway we have to ramp up in our navies all over the alliance, including the U.S.. So, this is a debate we need to have, these seven countries working together, and NATO will be involved whenever that is useful."