Denmark needs to forget about dog sleds and come up with a real defense for Greenland: former Trump national security adviser

Denmark needs to do more than use dog sleds to defend Greenland because its icy territory puts it “on the front lines of the war against Russia and China,” former national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.

O’Brien, 58, defended President-elect Donald Trump’s former boss’s renewed calls for the takeover of Greenland, stressing that the world’s largest island is an increasingly strategic, resource-rich sea route to the United States.

“The Danes have to station the frigate there that they need, they can station the air squadrons, they can station the missiles in Greenland and they can station the infantry there that they need to defend it,” said O’Brien, who said served under Trump, Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” said.

“Just like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia do in Eastern Europe. Or they can pay us to do it,” O’Brien said of Denmark. “If they don’t want to do either, they can let us buy Greenland, and Greenland can become part of Alaska. The indigenous people of Greenland are very closely related to the people of Alaska.”

O’Brien stressed that the US cannot defend the Danish “empire” “for free” and should already receive some compensation, alluding to a 1951 treaty that gives the US broad influence over its defense.

Trump, 78, set his sights on Greenland during his first term. The United States has been trying to conquer the territory since at least the 1860s.

Last week, Trump renewed his push for Danish territory, declaring U.S. possession of Greenland an “absolute necessity” for “national security purposes and freedom around the world.”

The Danes responded angrily, insisting that Greenland was not for sale and announcing increased defense spending on the icy island, including two new dog sled teams.

O’Brien scoffed at the Danes’ promised security improvements.

“Greenland is a highway from the Arctic through North America to the United States,” he said. “It is strategically very important for the Arctic, which will be the decisive battlefield of the future.

“As the climate warms, the Arctic will be a pathway that may even limit the use of the Panama Canal. The Russians and Chinese are everywhere in the Arctic.”

The former national security adviser suggested that Greenland, which lies on the Northwest Passage, could emerge as a competitor for “use of the Panama Canal.”

In recent weeks, Trump has publicly mused about the possibility of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state and America retaking the Panama Canal.

While he is said to be serious about Greenland and the canal, his comments about Canada have mostly been swipes at its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as part of an economic dispute between the two, sources told the Post.

The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 1900s to serve as an important sea link between the Pacific and Atlantic, saving ships from having to circumnavigate South America to travel between the two waters.

In 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty and the Neutrality Treaty, relinquishing U.S. control of the crucial canal in return for assurances that it would remain neutral.

Both Trump and O’Brien have complained about the increasing fines that U.S. ships have to pay at the canal, as well as fears that China’s influence could increase at the critical junction.

“In general, we love Panamanians. These are good people. They are friends of America. But they have left the ports at both ends of the canal to the Chinese,” O’Brien said, referring to the Hong Kong-based owners of those two ports.

“They ultimately cannot impose excessive prices on American taxpayers and consumers, and they cannot give the Chinese access to both ends of the canal and give them control of the whole thing.” That violates the neutrality provision of the Panama Canal Treaty (Panama) got the canal back,” he added.

“The Panamanians can deal with the program, or we may have to retake the canal.”