Trump tells Norway he no longer feels obligation to think only of peace

By John Irish

PARIS/OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has told Norway’s prime minister in a letter that he no longer feels obligated “to think purely of Peace” because he ‍had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and he repeated his demand for control of Greenland.

The letter, seen by Reuters, came in response to a brief message to Trump from Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finnish President Alexander Stubb opposing his decision to impose tariffs on European ‌allies over their refusal to let the U.S. ‌take control of Greenland, Stoere said in a statement.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although ​it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump ‍wrote in the letter.

Stoere said he ​had repeatedly told Trump that the Norwegian Nobel Committee, ​which awards the peace prize, is independent and that Norway’s government has ‍no control over it.

Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, which last year was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Machado gave Trump her gold medal during a White House meeting last week, though the Norwegian Nobel Committee has said the prize ‍cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.

In his letter, Trump also again questioned Danish sovereignty over Greenland, saying: “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, ‍and why do ‍they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?

“There are no written ​documents, it’s only that a boat landed there ​hundreds of ⁠years ago, but we had boats landing there, ‌also.”

“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump added.

Greenland, a vast, mineral-rich Arctic island, is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

(Reporting by John Irish in Paris, additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, writing by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Alex Richardson ⁠and Gareth Jones)