Washington - US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed
interest in buying the entire island of Greenland "with varying
degrees of seriousness," the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported
Thursday.
The WSJ cited unnamed advisers as saying that the president asked
White House counsels to "look into the idea" of purchasing the
world's largest island.
The report said that Trump, who is scheduled to make his first visit
to Denmark early next month, asked advisers whether the US could
acquire Greenland on numerous occasions and expressed interest in the
autonomous Danish territory's resources and geopolitical importance.
The WSJ cited current and former White House officials as saying
Trump's intentions may be to strengthen military presence in the
Arctic or to leave an Alaska-type legacy.
While the White House and State Department didn't respond to a
request for comment from the WSJ, CNN cited two unnamed sources as
confirming the report.
With a population of around 56,000, the icy territory between the
North Atlantic and Arctic oceans is mostly self-ruled, though Denmark
remains in charge of foreign affairs, defence and monetary policy.
Greenland receives some 560 million dollars in annual subsidies from
Denmark, amounting to more than half of the territory's revenues.
This isn't the first time the US has set its sights on Greenland. In
1946, under president Harry Truman, the US offered Denmark 100
million dollars to buy the 2 million-square-kilometre island - an
offer the Danes refused.