Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during an interview this week that President Donald Trump is serious about the U.S. retaking the Panama Canal and acquiring Greenland for national security purposes.
Rubio made the remarks during an interview with Megyn Kelly after being confirmed and sworn in to the role last week.
“The Arctic Circle and the Arctic region is going to become critical for shipping lanes for how you get some of this energy that’s going to be produced under President Trump,” Rubio said. “These energies rely on shipping lanes. The Arctic is some of the most valuable shipping lanes in the world. As some of the ice is melting, [it’s] become more and more navigable. We need to be able to defend that.”
Rubio said that communist China was trying to stage operations in Greenland to take control of shipping lanes the same way that it was in the Panama Canal.
Rubio said that they are installing facilities that give them access to the Arctic under the cover of a Chinese company, but that in reality “serve a dual purpose, that in a moment of conflict, they could send naval vessels to that facility and operate from there.”
“And that is completely unacceptable to the security of the world and the national security of the United States,” he said.
“So the question becomes, if the Chinese begin to threaten Greenland, do we really trust that that is not a place where those deals are going to be made? Do we really trust that that is not a place where they would not intervene, maybe by force?”
Rubio noted that Denmark is unable to stop China because they are too weak and they already rely on the U.S. to do so.
“If the United States is on the hook to provide, as we are now, we have a defense agreement with them to protect Greenland if it becomes under assault,” he said. “If we’re already on the hook for having to do that, then what we might as well have more control over what happens there. And so I know it’s a delicate topic for Denmark, but it’s, again, a national interest item for the United States.”
