Author: John Ireland
PARIS/OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told Norway’s prime minister in a letter that he no longer feels obligated to “purely think about peace” because he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize and reiterated his demand to control Greenland.
Storey said in a statement that the letter, seen by Reuters, was in response to brief messages to Trump from Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gall Storey and Finnish President Alexander Stuab, who objected to Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on European allies over their refusal to let the United States control Greenland.
“In light of your country’s decision not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing eight wars, I no longer feel obligated to think purely about peace, although peace will always prevail, and can now consider what is good and right for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in the letter.
Storr said he had repeatedly told Trump that the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Peace Prize, is independent and that the Norwegian government has no control over it.
Trump has publicly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded last year to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Machado awarded Trump the gold medal at a White House meeting last week, though the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.
In the letter, Trump also once again questioned Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, saying: “Denmark cannot protect this land from Russia or China, so why do they have ‘ownership’?
“There’s no written documentation, just that a ship landed there hundreds of years ago, but we also have ships that landed there.”
“The world is not safe unless we have complete control of Greenland,” Trump added.
Greenland is a vast, mineral-rich Arctic island that is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
(Reporting by John Ireland in Paris, additional reporting by Nora Brie in Oslo, writing by Stan Jacobson, editing by Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones)