Greenland has once again said it is not for sale after US President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to control the territory.
“Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland,” its prime minister said Monday, a day after Trump repeated comments about the Arctic island he first made several years ago.
Greenland, an autonomous Danish region, is home to a large US space facility and is located on the shortest route from the US to Europe, meaning it is of strategic importance to America.
There was no immediate response to Trump's comments from Denmark.
“For the purposes of national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” the US president-elect wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday.
His comments sparked a sharp rebuke from Greenland's Prime Minister Miot Egede, who said: “We are not for sale and we will never be for sale.”
“We must not lose our long struggle for freedom. However, we must continue to be open to cooperation and trade with the whole world, especially with our neighbors,” he said.
Trump's controversial statements came hours after he announced his intention to nominate Ken Howery, his former ambassador to Sweden, as the new ambassador to Denmark.
Howery said he was “deeply humbled” by the nomination and looked forward to working with staff at the US Embassy in Copenhagen and the US Consulate in Greenland to “deepen the ties between our two countries.”
Trump's original proposal in 2019 that the United States take over Greenland, the world's largest island, drew a similarly sharp rebuke from leaders there.
Then-Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksson, who still holds that position, called the idea “ridiculous,” prompting Trump to… Cancellation of a state trip to the country.
He is not the first US president to propose buying Greenland. The idea was first proposed during the 1860s under President Andrew Johnson.
Separately on Sunday Donald Trump It threatened to reassert its control of the Panama CanalOne of the world's most important waterways – Panama is accused of charging exorbitant fees to access it.
Panama's president later said that “every square meter” of the canal and the surrounding area belonged to his country.
