(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s gratified to hear that President Trump says he’s secured a deal with NATO that will bring the United States complete and enduring access to Greenland. Grassley, a Republican, agrees with the president in saying the territory of Denmark is in a strategic location and it’s in America’s best interest to keep Russia or China from gaining a foothold there.

“The president says there’s an arrangement that’s going to maybe guarantee everything that we would want through owning the territory, that it’s no longer necessary to use force,” Grassley says. “It’s no longer necessary to buy the island.” Trump made the announcement about Greenland earlier today (Thursday) while in Switzerland where he’s attending a NATO summit, and Grassley says he’s pleased with the news.

“The president didn’t need to invade. It didn’t need to be a part of the United States,” Grassley says. “I know that the European countries, particularly Denmark, is open to almost everything the United States needs for our national security. It sounds to me that has been satisfied.” The U-S and Denmark signed an agreement in 1951 that allows the U-S to build military bases on Greenland and move around the island freely.

About 80-percent of Greenland is covered with ice, and it only has around 56-thousand residents, about two-thousand fewer than the city of Dubuque. Greenland covers some 836-thousand square miles, or about 15 times the size of Iowa.