U.S. President Donald Trump reaffirmed his controversial ambition to annex Greenland, a self-governing region of Denmark, in the interest of "international security."
"I think it will happen," Trump told reporters at the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, when asked about his vision for the annexation.
He pointed at Rutte and added the NATO chief could be "very instrumental" in the move.
"You know Mark, we need that for international security... we have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful," he said, apparently referring to rising Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic region.
Trump's threats to take over the resource-rich Arctic island have shined an unprecedented global spotlight on the territory, as he has previously refused to rule out the use of force to "get Greenland."
The U.S. president's comments come days after Greenland's elections, with all the political parties, and the majority of the island's 57,000 inhabitants, backing independence – though they disagree on how quickly the process should go.
Greenland's pro-business opposition Demokraatit party, which wants a slow approach to independence from Denmark, won Tuesday's parliamentary election.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland's likely new prime minister, on Wednesday rejected Trump's effort to take control of the island, saying Greenlanders must be allowed to decide their own future.
"We don't want to be Americans. No, we don't want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future," Nielsen, 33, told Britain's Sky News. "And we want to build our own country by ourselves."
That didn't stop Trump from suggesting on Thursday that Greenland's election was "very good" for "us" and "the person who did the best is a very good person, as far as we're concerned."
Denmark has said Greenland is not for sale.
Trump said "Denmark's very far away" from Greenland and questioned whether that country still had a right to claim the world's largest island as part of its kingdom.
"A boat landed there 200 years ago or something. And they say they have rights to it," Trump said. "I don't know if that's true. I don't think it is, actually."
Trump said U.S. control of Greenland could be important for national security reasons and even suggested NATO should be involved, but Rutte demurred.
Trump nonetheless noted that the U.S. already has a considerable military presence in Greenland and added, "Maybe you'll see more and more soldiers going there. I don't know."
Rutte said that he would not be involved in any question of Greenland becoming part of the United States, saying: "I don't want to drag NATO in that."
However, "when it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right," Rutte said.
"The Chinese are now using these routes. We know that the Russians are rearming. We know we have lack of icebreakers.
"So the fact that the seven – outside Russia – seven Arctic countries working together on this under U.S. leadership is very important to make sure that that region, that part of the world stays safe," Rutte said.
