NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Greenland’s prime minister declared Wednesday that “Greenland is ours” and can’t be taken or purchased in defiance of a message from U.S. President Donald Trump, who stated his administration supported the Arctic island’s right of self-determination — however added that the US will purchase the territory “a technique or one other.”
Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede stated the island’s residents aren’t American nor Danish as a result of they’re Greenlandic.
America wants to grasp that, he wrote in a publish in Greenlandic and Danish on Facebook Wednesday.
The way forward for Greenland can be determined by its individuals, he wrote.
His publish got here hours after Trump made a direct attraction to Greenlanders in a speech to Congress on Tuesday, every week earlier than islanders head to the polls for parliamentary elections.
“We strongly assist your proper to find out your individual future, and when you select, we welcome you into the US of America,” Trump stated.
“We are going to maintain you protected. We are going to make you wealthy. And collectively we’ll take Greenland to heights like you could have by no means thought attainable earlier than,” he added.
However Trump additionally stated his administration was “working with everyone concerned to attempt to get it,” referring to his needs to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally.
“We want it actually for worldwide world safety. And I feel we’re going to get it. By some means, we’re going to get it,” Trump stated.
Requested about Trump’s feedback, Denmark’s overseas minister stated Wednesday he didn’t assume Greenlanders wished to separate from Denmark with the intention to as a substitute grow to be “an built-in a part of America.”
Lars Løkke Rasmussen sought to strike an optimistic tone, saying he believed that Trump’s reference to respecting Greenlanders’ proper to self-determination was “crucial a part of that speech.”
“I’m very optimistic about what can be a Greenlandic determination about this. They wish to loosen their ties to Denmark, we’re engaged on that, to have a extra equal relationship,” the minister stated throughout a trip to Finland.
Løkke added that it was essential that subsequent week’s parliamentary elections are free and honest “with none form of worldwide intervention.”
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Greenlanders will head to the polls Tuesday. Trump’s latest feedback about taking up the island have ignited unprecedented curiosity in full independence from Denmark, which has grow to be a key difficulty throughout marketing campaign season.
