March 5 (UPI) — Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said the people of Greenland will determine their future and don’t want to be part of the United States or Denmark.
“We do not want to be Americans nor Danes. We are Kalaallit,” Egede said Wednesday in a Facebook post that is written in Greenland’s native language.
Egede made his comment after President Donald Trump said Greenland is important for national and global security.
“We’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” Trump said during his speech televised nationally on Tuesday night.
“We need it really for international world security,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to get it, one way or the other.”
Trump said Greenland becoming a U.S. territory would make Greenland’s population safe and rich.
“Together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before,” Trump said.
Egede in his Facebook response said it’s important for “Americans and their leader” to understand the people of Greenland want to be independent.
“We are not for sale and cannot simply be taken,” Egede said. “Our future will be decided by us in Greenland.”
Polling in Greenland suggests its people don’t want to become a U.S. territory and prefer to become an independent state free from Denmark’s influence, the Economic Times reported.
Greenland is the world’s largest island and home to about 60,000 people. It also is a self-governing territory of Denmark that is located northeast of Canada and west of the United Kingdom and Iceland.
Denmark Defense Minister Trouls Lund Poulsen on Wednesday told that nation’s public broadcasting company the United States won’t buy or annex Greenland.
“That won’t happen,” Poulsen said. “The direction that Greenland wants to take will be decided by Greenlanders.”
He suggested Denmark would support an expanded U.S. military presence in Greenland, though.
Greenland mostly is covered by glacial ice and positioned where new sea routes are being opened as Arctic ice masses recede amid a changing global climate.
A Russian vessel several years ago crossed the new Northwest Passage between Greenland and the Arctic land mass at the North Pole during the winter months, which has elevated global interest in Greenland and its ports.
The Northwest Passage also is called the Transpolar Sea route and shortens the route between East Asian ports and Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.
Potential use by Russia and China has raised concerns regarding security in the North Atlantic among Western nations.
Greenland also contains oil, natural gas and mineral resources and hosts the United States’ northernmost military base.
