COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Greenland shouldn’t be on the market, its elected chief mentioned on Monday, responding to feedback made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump relating to the “ownership and control” of the huge Arctic island that has been a part of Denmark for over 600 years.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” the island’s Prime Minister Mute Egede mentioned in a written remark.
Trump on Sunday introduced that he had picked Ken Howery, a former envoy to Sweden, as his ambassador to Copenhagen, and commented on the standing of Greenland, a semi-autonomous a part of Denmark and host to a big U.S. Air Drive base.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote on Reality Social.
Trump, who takes workplace on Jan. 20, didn’t elaborate on the assertion.
Denmark’s international ministry and the prime minister’s workplace weren’t instantly out there for remark.
The Danish authorities should state in clear phrases that management over Greenland shouldn’t be up for dialogue or negotiation, member of parliament Rasmus Jarlov of the opposition Conservative Occasion mentioned on social media platform X.
“To the extent that U.S. activities aim to take control of Danish territory, it must be prohibited and countered. Then they can’t be there at all,” mentioned Jarlov, who heads parliament’s defence committee.
The island, whose capital Nuuk is nearer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and wealth. However growth has been gradual, leaving its economic system reliant on fishing and annual subsidies from Denmark.
With its Pituffik air base, Greenland is strategically essential for the U.S. navy and its ballistic missile early-warning system, for the reason that shortest route from Europe to North America runs by way of the island.
Throughout his earlier time period in workplace, Trump in 2019 expressed curiosity in shopping for Greenland, however the proposal was promptly rejected by Denmark in addition to by the island’s personal authorities earlier than any formal discussions might happen.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on the time labelled Trump’s provide as “absurd”, main him to time period her dismissal of the concept as “nasty” and to subsequently cancel a go to to Copenhagen.
Frederiksen stays in her position of Danish prime minister.
Since 2009 Greenland has held the fitting to declare independence from Denmark. The island of some 56,000 inhabitants, which depends on vital price range transfers from Copenhagen annually, has to this point kept away from doing so.
Individually on Sunday, Trump threatened to reassert U.S. management over the Panama Canal, accusing Panama of charging extreme charges to make use of the Central American passage and drawing a pointy rebuke from Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino.
