Greenland is not for sale, the island's Prime Minister Mutti Egede said today in response to comments by US President Donald Trump regarding "ownership and control" over the large Arctic island, which has been part of Denmark for more than 600 years, Reuters reported.
“Greenland is ours. We are for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long fight for freedom,” Egede said in a statement.
Yesterday, Trump announced that he had chosen former envoy to Sweden Ken Howery as his ambassador in Copenhagen and commented on the status of Greenland – semi-autonomous part of Denmark, where a large US air force base is located.
“For the purposes of national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America believes that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity“, Trump wrote on his social network “Truth Social“. He did not give further details.
There has been no comment from the Danish government at this time, Reuters notes.
Greenland, where the “Pitufik“ air base is located, is of strategic importance to the US armed forces and their ballistic missile early warning system, as the shortest route from Europe to North America passes over the island.
In 2019 During his previous term, Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland, but the offer was immediately rejected by Denmark and the island's authorities before any formal discussions.
At the time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called Trump's offer "absurd" and he later called the way she rejected it "unpleasant" and canceled a visit to Copenhagen.
Greenland has had the right to declare independence from Denmark since 2009. The island, with a population of about 56,000, relies on large annual budget transfers from Copenhagen and has so far refrained from doing so.
Trump also threatened over the weekend to restore US control of the Panama Canal and accused Panama of imposing excessively high transit tariffs. This prompted sharp criticism from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino.