Trump slams NATO for rejecting Greenland claim

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the US will give a license for its Patriot air defence systems to be made overseas for Ukraine to counter Russian missile attacks, a huge coup for Ukraine, which has badly needed the technology in the war now in its fifth year.

Trump made the announcement as he met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Turkiye, praising him as having “done an amazing job” and “been very effective” in the war.

“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said. Zelenskyy has long sought more of the defence systems, which are expensive, in high demand and take a long time to manufacture. He has been pressing for Ukraine to be granted a license to manufacture the technology. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s renewed demands that the US should take control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, saying that “Greenland is of course not for sale.”

“We hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenland people’s right for self-determination,” Frederiksen said ahead of a meeting of the leaders of NATO member countries in Turkiye. “We are sovereign States and we need everybody to respect our territorial integrity and our sovereignty.” Trump reopened old wounds over Greenland on the eve of the meeting by insisting that the United States should control the semiautonomous island.

NATO is founded on the principle that its 32 members will defend each other’s territory, not threaten to seize it.

Frederiksen said Denmark is “ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory” in the event of an attack and would rely on NATO allies to honor their commitment to defend each other. Iceland’s Prime Minister, Kristrín Frostadóttir, said Greenland “belongs to the people of Greenland,” and called for unity among the NATO allies in the face of external dangers.

“We have threats coming from outside the alliance,” Frostadottir said. “Russia is their biggest threat when it comes to these NATO allies. We need to focus on us and how we stick together.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said from Ankara on Wednesday that he believes the United States is fully committed to the military organization, and praised Trump for taking forceful action against Iran overnight.