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The president of the United States, Donald Trump, unleashed a new diplomatic storm by sending a letter to the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, in which he linked his frustration over not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize to his renewed ambition to dominate Greenland, a territory belonging to Denmark.
“Considering that your country decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight MORE wars, I no longer feel the obligation to think solely about peace… but rather about what is good and appropriate for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in the letter.
The message was leaked by the PBS network and confirmed by the Norwegian Prime Minister himself.
In the letter, the American president questions Denmark's "claim of ownership" over Greenland and asserts that "the world will not be safe" unless the United States has "total and complete control of Greenland."
"Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and anyway, why do they have a 'property right'? There are no written documents, just that a ship docked there hundreds of years ago," Trump said.
The president asserts that he has done "more for NATO than anyone else since its founding" and demanded that the alliance "do something for the United States."
The response from the Norwegian Prime Minister was swift. “I can confirm that this is a text message I received yesterday afternoon from President Trump,” Støre stated in an official statement.
He explained that in their initial communication, along with the Finnish president Alexander Stubb, they had requested Trump to hold a group call to ease tensions following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs against European countries, but instead of the call, they received the unexpected letter.
"Norway's stance on Greenland is firm: it belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, and we fully support that sovereignty," he stated.
Støre also emphasized that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by an independent committee, not by the Norwegian government, referring to the remarks made by the U.S. president, who recently criticized the award being given to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
The episode has heightened transatlantic tensions to their highest point since the Cold War. Several European governments, led by Germany and France, rejected what they termed “blackmail from Washington.”
Meanwhile, Putin supported Trump's plan to invade Greenland, and from the Kremlin, they watch American ambitions with irony.
"Trump will go down in history if he resolves the issue of Greenland," commented spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this Monday.
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