Greenland invasion "not going to happen," says Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about wanting to take over Greenland, calling it a "bad idea" that was not worth further discussion, News.az reports citing News.az.

“The idea expressed about Greenland is not a good one, it’s not going to happen, and it’s not one we should waste time talking about,” Blinken told reporters during a visit to Paris, his last foreign trip before leaving office.

Trump caused a furor on Tuesday when he declared that he would not exclude using economic or military coercion to gain control of Greenland, a country within the Kingdom of Denmark, or the Panama Canal. “I’m not gonna commit to that. No. It might be that you’ll have to do something,” he said.

Standing alongside the French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Blinken said the U.S. was “stronger” and “more effective” when it works with allies rather than “saying and doing things that alienate them,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Barrot had warned that it was “out of the question” that the European Union would let other countries “attack its sovereign borders.” When speaking next to Blinken, Barrot dialed down the rhetoric, saying that he did not believe the U.S. was really planning to invade the world’s largest island.

When asked by reporters about tech billionaire Elon Musk controversially wading into European politics, Blinken refused to comment.

Musk has recently attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and publicly backed the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of a snap election next month.

Blinken said that Musk and other “private citizens in [the U.S.] can say what they want or believe and everyone else can draw their own conclusions.”

Musk, who owns SpaceX, Tesla and X, has been a key adviser to the president-elect. Trump tapped Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a cost-cutting outside consultancy called the Department of Government Efficiency.

News.Az