WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced plans to meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the Trump administration's interest in Greenland.

Rubio’s comments on Capitol Hill came as the Trump administration has amped up rhetoric about taking over Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark.

US President Donald Trump doubled down on the idea this week, and the White House has refused to rule out using military force to seize the Arctic island.

Rubio told reporters that "acquiring" Greenland has "always been the president’s intent from the very beginning," adding that “he’s not the first US president that has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland.”

Denmark and Greenland sought the meeting after Trump and his advisers reiterated in recent days their desire to control the island, heightening fears after the unprecedented US military operation to capture Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.

Tensions with NATO members escalated after the White House said Tuesday that the “US military is always an option.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned earlier this week that a US takeover would amount to the end of NATO.

Rubio was on Capitol Hill for a briefing with the entire US Senate and House, where questions from lawmakers centred not only on the capture of Maduro — but also on Trump’s recent comments about Greenland.

Rubio did not directly answer a question about whether the Trump administration is willing to risk the NATO alliance by potentially moving ahead with a military option regarding Greenland.

“I’m not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention, I’ll be meeting with them next week, we’ll have those conversations with them then, but I don’t have anything further to add to that," Rubio said, telling reporters that every president retained the option to address national security threats to the United States through military means.

Trump has argued that the United States needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.

On Tuesday evening, Danish Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said Denmark would spend 88 billion Danish kroner ($13.8 billion) on rearming Greenland given “the serious security situation we find ourselves in.”

“I hope that the United States also recognizes that fact and is ready to cooperate on our common interest in Arctic security,” Poulsen said in a statement.

“Because Denmark would like to continue to be an ally of the United States,” he said. “But that requires a mutual willingness to show respect and cooperation.”

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined PM Frederiksen in a statement Tuesday reaffirming that the mineral-rich island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, “belongs to its people.” — Agencies