Nuuk : The prime minister of Greenland pushed back
Sunday against assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump that America will take
control of the island territory.
Greenland, a huge, resource-rich island in the Atlantic,
is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the United States.
Trump wants to annex the territory, claiming it’s needed for national security
purposes.
“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.
Nielsen’s post comes a day after the U.S. president told
NBC News that military force wasn’t off the table with regard to acquiring
Greenland. In Saturday’s interview, Trump allowed that “I think there’s a good
possibility that we could do it without military force.”
“This is world peace, this is international security,”
he said, but added: “I don’t take anything off the table.” Greenland’s
residents and politicians have reacted with anger to Trump’s repeated
suggestions, with Danish leaders also pushing back.
Trump also said “I don’t care,” when asked in the NBC
interview what message this would send to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
has invaded Ukraine and annexed several of its provinces in defiance of
international law.