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 itโs needed for national security purposes.
โPresident Trump says that the United States โwill get Greenland.โ Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,โ Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.
Nielsenโs post comes a day after the U.S. president told NBC News that military force wasnโt off the table with regard to acquiring Greenland.
In Saturdayโs interview, Trump allowed that โI think thereโs a good possibility that we could do it without military force.โ
โThis is world peace, this is international security,โ he said, but added: โI donโt take anything off the table.โ
Greenlandโs residents and politicians have reacted with anger to Trumpโs repeated suggestions, with Danish leaders also pushing back.
Trump also said โI donโt care,โ 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.