Britain is in talks with NATO to counter Russia and China in the Arctic

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LONDON (AP) — Britain is discussing with NATO allies how it can help beef up security in the Arctic to counter threats from Russia and China, a government minister said Sunday.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the talks are “business as usual” rather than a response to recent threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take over Greenland.

Trump has said that he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over. He said Sunday night that making a deal for Greenland would be “easier" and insisted the U.S. needed to acquire it.

“One way or the other, we're going to have Greenland,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington.

Greenland, with a population of around 57,000, is defended by Denmark, whose military is dwarfed by that of the U.S., which has a military base on the island. Denmark’s prime minister has warned that a takeover would threaten NATO.

Trump dismissed that idea on Sunday, proclaiming himself the savior of NATO for encouraging member countries to boost their defense spending.

“I like NATO,” he said.

He then questioned “whether or not, if we needed NATO, would they be there for us? I'm not sure they would."

In fact, NATO's Article 5 common defense guarantee, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on them all, has only been invoked once, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, leading to NATO’s operation in Afghanistan.

Tensions have grown between the U.S. and Denmark since the Trump administration renewed its warnings against Greenland. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's ambassador to the U.S., fired back at newly tapped U.S. Greenland envoy Jeff Landry, who said in a social media post that the “U.S. defended Greenland's sovereignty during (World War II) when Denmark couldn't.”

Sørensen responded that Denmark has always stood alongside the U.S., particularly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and that only Greenlanders should decide their future.

“Let's continue to address security challenges in the Arctic as partners & allies,” Sørensen wrote. Danish officials are meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week.

The U.K. agrees with Trump that Russia and China are increasingly becoming more competitive in the Arctic Circle, Alexander said.

“Whilst we haven’t seen the appalling consequences in that part of the world that we’ve seen in Ukraine, it is really important that we do everything that we can with all of our NATO allies to ensure that we have an effective deterrent in that part of the globe against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Alexander told the BBC.

Britain's former ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, who was sacked last year because of his friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, said he did not think Trump would take Greenland by force.

“He’s not a fool,” Mandelson said. “We are all going to have to wake up to the reality that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia. And if you ask me who is going to lead in that effort to secure, we all know, don’t we, that it’s going to be the United States.”

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, suggested Britain offer to deploy troops to Greenland in a joint command with Denmark.

“If Trump is serious about security, he’d agree to participate and drop his outrageous threats,” Davey said. “Tearing the NATO alliance apart would only play into the hands of Putin.”

It’s unclear how remaining NATO members would respond if the U.S. decided to forcibly take control of the island or if they would come to Denmark’s aid.

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in West Palm Beach, Florida and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.