The US will not get Greenland, the Arctic island's new prime minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said on Sunday in response to US President Donald Trump's threats he wants to gain control of the vast territory.
“President Trump says that the United States ‘will get Greenland.’ Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.
Trump repeated his desire to take control of Greenland in an interview with NBC News on Saturday, telling his host: “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%” arguing that there's a good possibility the US could take the island "without military force."
"I don't take anything off the table," Trump concluded.
Nielsen, a 33-year-old former minister, was sworn in on Friday after his centre-right Demokraatit party won elections in early March.
In his first press conference as leader he called for political unity to combat external pressures. Nielsen has campaigned for Greenland to slowly achieve independence from Denmark, which has semi-control of the territory, through the island becoming economically self-reliant.
Nielsen was sworn in mere hours before a high-profile US delegation led by vice-president JD Vance visited the country.
Vance, during his visit to the Pituffik US Space Force outpost, criticised Denmark for not doing a "good job" by the people of Greenland.
"You have underinvested in the people of Greenland and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass,” Vance asserted.
His comments were met with criticism from Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who said on Saturday: “We are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered."
“This is not how you speak to your close allies, and I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies,” Rasmussen said.
