‘Greenland Is Ours’: PM Egede Rejects Trump’s Offer to Be Part of US- wna24

Nuuk: Prime Minister of Greenland, Múte Bourup Egede declared on Wednesday that “Greenland is ours” and cannot be taken or bought in defiance of a message from US President Donald Trump, who said the United States will acquire the territory “one way or another” even though his administration supports the island’s right of self-determination.

PM Egede said, the island’s citizens are Greenlandic, not American or Danish, he wrote in a Facebook post, stressing that Greenland’s future will be determined by its people.

PM Egede’s post came hours after Trump made a direct appeal to Greenlanders in a speech to Congress on Tuesday, a week before islanders head to the polls for parliamentary elections.

Trump said, “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,”

“We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.” he added.

But Trump also said his administration was “working with everybody involved to try to get it,” referring to his wishes to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a longtime US ally.

Trump asserted, “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,” 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in an interview with broadcaster TV2, echoed Egede in repeating that Greenland is not for sale.

She said that Denmark would like to hold onto its commonwealth, but it’s a commonwealth that must be improved through equality and respect.

Also read: Here’s Why Danish Citizens Launch ‘Buy California’ Campaign

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 homeland.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Wednesday he did not think Greenlanders wanted to separate from Denmark in order to instead become “an integrated part of America.”

Løkke sought to strike an optimistic tone, saying he believed that Trump’s reference to respecting Greenlanders’ right to self-determination was “the most important part of that speech.”