Greenland’s prime minister said Monday the autonomous island is not for sale after President-elect Trump said owning Greenland “is an absolute necessity” for the U.S.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” Prime Minister Múte Egede said in a statement, according to reports from BBC and The Guardian.
“We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” Egede added.
The statement came after Trump issued a statement Sunday announcing Ken Howery as his pick for ambassador to Denmark and floating the idea of owning Greenland.
Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark but is its own autonomous country.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump has raised the matter in the past. In late 2019, Trump said buying Greenland was “strategically” interesting, provoking a frustrated response from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“Denmark essentially owns it. We’re very good allies with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world,” Trump said at the time, adding, “Strategically, it’s interesting, and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to them a little bit. It’s not number one on the burner.”
Frederiksen called the idea “absurd,” telling reporters at the time, “Greenland is not Danish. Greenland is Greenlandic. I persistently hope that this is not something that is seriously meant.”
According to a book by The New York Times’s Peter Baker and The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, the president-elect suggested to aides during his first term that the U.S. could trade Puerto Rico for Greenland.
Trump also made waves this weekend after suggesting that the U.S. retake control of the Panama Canal from Panama, expressing frustration at the fees for usage of the canal.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino fired back at Trump in a video statement Sunday.
“As president, I want to express clearly that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone belongs to Panama, and will continue to do so,” Mulino said. “The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.”
