re: Trump orders up military invasion plans for Greenland right before NATO summit

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think frankly, I know you didn't ask me this question, but it's one I welcome the ability to talk about, and similar to the discussion with Greenland, putting aside all the things that are going on in the media. I think we need to understand that Greenland is strategically important to the United States and to the West for a very long time. In fact, in 1941, at the outbreak of World War II, the United States was signed up as a protector even though Denmark had been occupied. I think Harry Truman tried to buy Denmark. Harry Truman had made an effort to try to buy it for $100 million. He was rebuffed. And then the U.S. has maintained through the mutual defense agreement there the opportunity to have military bases, and it had them for a while. Why?

The reason why is because of what's located geographically. Yes, the access to the minerals on Greenland are critically important, but as more navigable space is opening up in the Arctic, particularly this northern passage that goes from Russia to Asia and could cut transit times by as much as 40%, the Arctic is going to become incredibly critical, and so we have to have a presence there. We have to have a presence there, not just saying, okay, we have a base, we have 200 people, or we have a flag flying. We have to have the ability, for example, to have the ships that can navigate on the naval level and keep those shipping lanes open if, in fact, they're being threatened. We have to have partners along the Arctic region that will join us in ensuring that the Arctic region is open for free and flow of navigation as these passages open up, because global trade is in many ways going to be infused by it.

We have positions within the State Department that I think in the past have been diminished or people just haven't paid a lot of attention to, and I just had this conversation the other day with Senator Murkowski that all of a sudden I think people are interested in serving in Arctic affairs and in Arctic posts because this issue of Greenland has opened our eyes to the broader geographic importance of the Arctic region, which for long has been a curiosity or something people have not talked about, but I think now we have the opportunity to see it for what it is. And that is, if not the most important, one of the most critical parts of the world over the next to 100 years will be whether there's going to be freedom of navigation in the Arctic and what that will mean for global trade and commerce. Thank you.

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