The bipartisan bill would ban funding for any move to annex or occupy the territory of a NATO member state.
US senators have introduced a bill aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from seizing NATO territory, including the self-ruled Danish island of Greenland.
The bipartisan NATO Unity Protection Act introduced Tuesday would block the Defence Department and the State Department from using funds to “blockade, occupy, or otherwise establish control” over the territory of any NATO member state.
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The bill, authored by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Lisa Murkowski, comes amid growing concerns over Trump’s repeated insistence that Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, be brought under Washington’s control, with the use of force if necessary.
“This bipartisan legislation makes clear that American taxpayer dollars cannot be used for actions that would fragment NATO and violate our commitments to NATO,” Shaheen, who represents the state of New Hampshire, said in a statement.
“This bill sends a clear message
The recent rhetoric surrounding Greenland significantly jeopardises America’s national security interests and encounters bipartisan resistance in Congress, according to the Democratic senators.
Murkowski, who represents Alaska and is a rare Republican critic of Trump, said the 32-member NATO security alliance was the “strongest line of defence” against efforts to undermine global peace and stability.
Murkowski said, “The mere notion that the United States would use its vast resources against our allies is deeply troubling and should be roundly rejected by Congress.”
Trump’s threats to annex Greenland have alarmed Washington’s European allies and warned of the end of NATO, which is built on the principle that an armed attack against one member is an attack against all.
Trump, who claims control over the vast Arctic region is vital to US national security, has dismissed concerns about splitting the alliance, which has been a cornerstone of the Western-led security order since the end of World War II.
Trump also said that if the US doesn’t act, China or Russia will seize Greenland, which has large fossil fuel and mineral reserves.
“I would love to make a deal with them. It’s that easy,” Trump said Sunday of his plans for the region.
“But one way or another, we’re going to get Greenland.”
Rebuking Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Fredrik Nielsen, offered some of their strongest comments Tuesday in defence of Copenhagen’s sovereignty over the territory.
“If we have to choose here and now between the United States and Denmark, we choose Denmark,” Nielsen said at a joint news conference in Copenhagen.
“We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the European Union,” he said.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt are scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President JD Vance in Washington DC on Wednesday for talks on the escalating crisis.
A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Chris Coons and Republican Senator Thom Tillis, is scheduled to arrive in Denmark on Friday for talks with local officials.
According to polling, a majority of Greenland’s 57,000 residents have expressed opposition to US control of the territory.
In a poll last year conducted by the Danish newspaper Berlingske, 85 percent of residents said they did not want to join the United States, with only 6 percent in favour.
