Nuuk, Denmark | AFP
Greenland’s prime minister on Wednesday hit back at President Donald Trump‘s pledge to take the Arctic territory “one way or the other”, insisting that islanders did not see their future with the United States or even Denmark.
Mute Egede rejected Trump’s expansionist ambitions to annex the sparsely populated but mineral-rich and strategically placed island, in a partisan address to the US Congress in Washington on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to be Americans, or Danes either. We are Greenlanders. The Americans and their leader must understand that,” Egede wrote in a Facebook post.
“We are not for sale and can’t just be taken. Our future is decided by us in Greenland,” he said, six days before the island’s legislative elections where the longstanding question of independence tops the agenda.
Trump offered only passing lines on world affairs in his speech, focusing on his domestic goals like rounding up undocumented immigrants and slashing government spending.
But he repeated his aspirations to take Greenland and claimed an initial victory on retaking control of the Panama Canal.
Trump said he had a message for the “incredible people” of Greenland. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” he added.
But he made clear he would not give up if persuasion fails, saying: “One way or the other we’re going to get it.
“We will keep you safe, we will make you rich, and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”
‘Won’t happen’
Denmark, of which self-governing Greenland is part, also rebuffed Trump’s aspirations to take the island, with China and Russia increasingly active in the Arctic, as climate change opens up sea routes.
In Copenhagen, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told public broadcaster DR that US annexation of Greenland “won’t happen”.
“The direction that Greenland wants to take will be decided by Greenlanders,” he said.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called for cool heads to prevail.
“I think everyone, including us, should be cautious about having all kinds of opinions about the future” of Greenland, he told Danish television TV2.
US threats to take Greenland would once have been unthinkable, with Denmark a treaty ally of the United States under NATO.
But Trump has made clear he has little patience for European allies, which he again denounced for not spending more on their militaries, with Trump instead seeing a return to an era of big powers taking what they want.
He has similarly vowed to take back the Panama Canal, the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the United States handed to Panama at the end of 1999.
‘Taking it back’
Trump declared triumph after Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison decided to sell its Panama ports to a US-led consortium.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had complained that rival China had gained too much influence over the canal and could shut it down in a conflict with the United States.
“To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he said, as he mentioned the port deal.
“We didn’t give it to China. Gave it to Panama — and we’re taking it back,” he said.
Trump had earlier not ruled out military force to seize either the Panama Canal or Greenland.
Trump has paradoxically sought to cast himself as a peacemaker. He has vowed to end the war in Ukraine and has rattled allies by suspending aid to the country, which Russia invaded three years ago.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House on Friday, calling him ungrateful.
Addressing Congress, Trump read a message from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader sought to repair the damage and voiced a willingness to a sign a deal in which the United States would take much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
“It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” Trump said.
The Trump administration at the same time has cancelled more than 90 percent of US development assistance, traditionally a key source of US non-military influence.
Trump has described aid as not in the US interest.
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© Agence France-Presse
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Pierre-Henry DESHAYES with Shaun TANDON in Washington | AFP
Featured image: Town of Aasiaat (Greenland) during winter season. Credit: Visit Greenland | Filip Gielda | Unsplash
