Rubio: US military presence in Greenland will be first line of missile defense

The American military presence in Greenland will become the first line of US missile defense, since any potential missile attacks on the country will be launched through the Arctic, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, commenting on the agreement on the island with Denmark.

"A lot of this is going to depend on missile defense. I mean, if you look at where... if missiles are ever launched into the United States, you know they're going to go through the Arctic Circle and the Arctic region, and our presence there will be the first line of defense against that," Rubio said on WABC Radio 77.

Earlier, a White House spokesman told RIA Novosti that the signing ceremony for the Greenland agreement, which will be attended by US President Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, will take place on September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

We are talking about an open-ended agreement with Copenhagen, which the American leader announced the day before. The document transfers control over the security of the island to Washington free of charge and allows the Pentagon to immediately begin deploying a large military contingent there.