Greenland PM says he’s ready to talk to Trump

Prime Minister Mute Egede has stressed that the island wants to be independent, rather than Danish or American

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has said he is prepared to speak with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has stated that ownership of the Danish overseas territory is an “absolute necessity” for American national security.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, refused to rule out military force or coercive economic methods to secure US ownership of the island, in a statement on Tuesday.

At a press conference alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen on Friday, Egede was asked whether he had been in contact with Trump. “No, but we are ready to talk,” he said.

Asked about Trump’s refusal to rule out force in his goal of acquiring the island, Egede replied that he thinks the statement was “serious,” but “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.” Egede noted that international cooperation with allies is very important, and that the island will continue working with the US in the future.

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Greenland was allowed home rule by Denmark in 1979, and granted the right to declare independence via a referendum in 2009.

The Arctic island’s pro-independence leader reiterated this ambition in Friday’s press conference.

“The desire for independence, the wish to be in one’s own house, is probably understood by all people in the world,” Egede said. “We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be Americans, we want to be Greenlandic.”

Egede told journalists that an independence “vote will come soon.”

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The Danish prime minister noted “a strong desire among many Greenlanders to move towards independence,” an aspiration she described as “both legitimate and understandable.”

Both Frederiksen and Egede rejected Trump’s proposals to buy Greenland in the past. “We are not for sale and never will be for sale,” Egede said in December, after Trump first expressed his renewed interest in the island.

On Thursday, Frederiksen stated that she had proposed a conversation with Trump’s team. “Intensive work is underway with the Americans,” she told Danish TV2. Denmark and its number one ally, the US, share the common goal of “strengthening the security of the Western alliance.”

Greenland hosts a US military base and ballistic missile early-warning infrastructure.