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Greenland‘s prime minister has issued a firm rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US could acquire the Arctic island, declaring, “Greenland is ours.”
In a Facebook post published in Greenlandic and Danish, Múte Bourup Egede said that Greenland’s citizens were neither American nor Danish, but Greenlandic, and that their futures would be decided by themselves.
The post followed a direct appeal from Trump to Greenlanders during a speech to Congress on Tuesday.
Trump’s address, delivered just a week before Greenland’s parliamentary elections, offered support for Greenland’s self-determination while simultaneously expressing a desire to acquire the territory.
“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump stated.
He further promised to “keep you safe”, “make you rich”, and “take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before”.
However, Trump also revealed his administration’s efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a long-standing US ally, stating they were “working with everybody involved to try to get it”.
“We need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” Trump said.
Many in Greenland, a vast and mineral-rich island that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, are worried and offended by Trump’s threats to seize control of their homeland.
Asked about Trump’s comments, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said on Wednesday he did not think Greenlanders wanted to separate from Denmark in order to instead become “an integrated part of America”.
A woman walks along the shore of a beach in Nuuk, Greenland (AP)
He said he believed that Trump’s reference to respecting Greenlanders’ right to self-determination was “the most important part of that speech”.
“I’m very optimistic about what will be a Greenlandic decision about this. They want to loosen their ties to Denmark, we’re working on that, to have a more equal relationship,” the minister said during a trip to Finland.
Løkke added that it was important that next week’s parliamentary elections were free and fair “without any kind of international intervention”.
Greenlanders will head to the polls on Tuesday.
Trump’s recent comments about taking over the island have ignited unprecedented interest in full independence from Denmark, which has become a key issue during campaign season.
