Greenland to set terms of defence and mining ties with US, says PM

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said on Monday the country is looking to strengthen its defence and mining ties with the United States, albeit on its own terms, following renewed interest from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, last week returned to an idea floated during his first term of acquiring the strategically important and mineral-rich Arctic island and described U.S. control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, as an "absolute necessity".

Egede said his government was looking for ways to cooperate with the United States and that it was ready to start a dialogue with Trump's incoming administration, but stressed it would be up to it to decide how it should proceed.

When asked at a press conference in Nuuk on Monday about expanding U.S. military capabilities on the vast Arctic island, Egede said: "Greenland's independence is Greenland's business, also in relation to the use of its land, so it is also Greenland that will decide what agreement we should come to."

Egede has summoned the leaders of Greenland's political parties to a meeting in the capital Nuuk to discuss a collective approach to the U.S. interest.

"This is the first time Greenland has been listened to in an intense way. We need to be calm and take advantage of things and stand together," he said.

While Trump did not rule out the potential use of military or economic means to gain control of Greenland last week, U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance, speaking to Fox News on Sunday, dismissed the use of military force even as he highlighted Greenland's strategic importance and its rich resources.

"It was worrying when we first heard it. But the vice president said yesterday that they have no interest in using weapons. Our interest is in cooperation," Egede said.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Tomasz Janowski)