“We’ve had a lot of allies raise their hand and offer to participate with their capabilities, but this points to my earlier point, which is we need capable allies. Many of them don’t have the necessary ships or assets to contribute to a meaningful maritime effort.”
The official added that the summit will feature major defence industry announcements involving allied cooperation.
“We’re going to have billions of dollars in announcements on the sidelines of the summit,” the official said, pointing to defence co-production projects and factory-building initiatives involving European and Canadian allies.
Related
Greenland
In response to a question about Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland, another official said the Trump administration still believes the US acquisition of Greenland is the best long-term solution while “alternative arrangements” are under discussion.
“We right now have governments in Greenland, Denmark, and the US that want to solve this, and they want to solve it permanently,” the official said.
“The president put forward a solution as to how to do that, and it would be the United States acquiring Greenland. We still think that’s the best way to meet the defence needs of NATO with respect to Greenland, but we’re also exploring with them all other mechanisms to address those concerns,” the official added.
Asked about Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit, the official said: “The president is obviously getting together with President Zelenskyy to talk about how we can end the war. It’s been a priority of his for a long time, and we’re hopeful that we can get to that point.”
