ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski had a message for the people in Greenland.
“It hurts my heart, it hurts my heart to know of the anxiety and concern that you and your families face, as you look, as you feel this time of unsettledness and what that must mean,” the senator said from Greenland on Monday.
Murkowski was the only Republican among four senators who took the trip to Greenland after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to acquire the island. Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, is a NATO ally.
In an interview with the New York Times, the president talked about why the U.S. needed to possess the territory.
“Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success,” Trump said. “I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
He later backed off threats to take the area by military force.
While she may have been the only Republican there, Murkowski said there are many others who quietly disagree with the president.
“I will also speak to the fact that there are some members of my party who don’t want to be seen as engaging in anything that might be viewed as contrary to President Trump’s initiative or desire, and so who may not be speaking out publicly,” she said.
She also said conversations with her fellow Republicans show that “occupying, owning, controlling, taking over Greenland,” is the “red line.”
Murkowski was joined by U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-ME, Co-Chairs of the U.S. Senate Arctic Caucus, led a bipartisan Congressional Delegation mission to Greenland this past weekend to reinforce relations and respect with the people of the Arctic nation that included Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI, and Maggie Hassan, D-NH.
Actor Viggo Mortensen was also in attendance for the press conference that Murkowski spoke at.
According to a news release from the senator, the lawmakers spent the weekend in Nuuk meeting with the prime minister and members of his cabinet, members of Parliament, Inuit leaders, Danish military leaders from Joint Arctic Command, and other Arctic officials.
A request for a comment from Sen. Dan Sullivan has not been returned, but earlier this month in an article on Fox News he talked about the changing landscape of the Alaska Arctic.
President Trump’s ongoing friction with Denmark over Greenland reflects the growing importance of the Arctic for the administration, Sullivan said. As melting ice opens new shipping lanes, energy access and military routes, Alaska is becoming a front line in the contest for economic and strategic dominance.
Trump’s recent focus on Greenland underscored the urgency of Arctic national security, Sullivan said to Fox News, echoing warnings from NATO commander USAF Gen. Alexus Grynkewich that China’s expanding “research” presence in the region is becoming increasingly aggressive.
