COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP)— Greenland’s prime minister said Tuesday the Danish autonomous territory wanted to stake out its own future and did not want to become American, following US President Donald Trump’s renewed remarks about taking control of the island.
Trump, who took office on Monday, set off alarm bells in early January by refusing to rule out military intervention to bring the Panama Canal and Greenland under US control.
While Trump didn’t mention Greenland in his inauguration speech on Monday, he was asked about it by reporters in the Oval Office afterward.
“Greenland is a wonderful place, we need it for international security,” Trump responded.
“I’m sure that Denmark will come along — it’s costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it,” he added.
But Greenlandic and Danish officials on Tuesday defended the Arctic island’s right to self-determination.
“We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland,” Prime Minister Mute Egede told a press conference.
“Our country and our people will decide what happens to Greenland,” he said.
Noting that the country was facing a “difficult situation”, Egede reiterated that Nuuk was open to talks with Washington to safeguard US interests in the Arctic, at a time when rivalries with China and Russia in the region are growing.
The United States has an active military base in the northwest of Greenland, which has a strategic location in the Arctic as ice melts due to climate change and opens up new shipping lanes.
The world’s largest island — whose capital Nuuk is closer to New York than Copenhagen — also holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, although oil and uranium exploration are banned.
“We have cooperated with the US on security issues for more than 80 years,” Egede recalled.
He said officials were working to organise a meeting with the US “to explain Greenland’s position”.
Egede acknowledged that Trump’s recent remarks were “worrying” and had caused concern among Greenlanders.
“But it is important to remain calm.”
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said earlier Tuesday that no country should be able to simply help themselves to another country.
“Of course we can’t have a world order where countries, if they’re big enough, no matter what they’re called, can just help themselves to what they want,” Lokke told reporters.
Greenland is scheduled to call elections before April 6, where the question of independence is expected to top the agenda.
Economically, Greenland depends on subsidies from Copenhagen equivalent to a fifth of its GDP, and on its fishing sector.
Despite its autonomy, Copenhagen is in charge of judicial affairs, monetary policy, foreign affairs, defence and security policy in Greenland.
On Monday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a post to Instagram that Europe would need to “navigate a new reality” with Trump as president.
While noting the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination, the head of government also stressed the need for Denmark to maintain its alliance with the US — which she described as Denmark’s most important since World War II.
A number of Danish party leaders were called to the prime minister’s office on Tuesday to be briefed on the situation.
“We have to recognize that the next four years will be difficult years,” Pia Olsen Dyhr, leader of the Green Left, told reporters after meeting with Frederiksen.
