Greenland makes Trump see red
stockholm — Greenland is not for sale, the mineral-rich island said on Friday, after a newspaper reported that US President Donald Trump was asking advisers whether it’s possible for the United States to buy the Arctic island.
Trump has expressed interest in the self-governing part of Denmark — which is mostly covered in ice, — asking advisers if it is possible for the US to acquire the territory, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The president, a former real estate magnate, has been curious about the area’s natural resources and geopolitical relevance, the paper reported. Greenland is a self-governing region of Denmark, which colonised the twomillion square-kilometre island in the 18th century, and is home to only about 57,000 people, most of whom belong to the indigenous Inuit community.
There has been no official comment from the White House, and the Danish embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
But Greenland’s ministry of foreign affairs insisted the island was ready to talk business, not purchase.
“#Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism,” it tweeted. —
copenhagen — Greenland on Friday dismissed the notion that it might be up for sale after reports that US President Donald Trump had privately discussed with his advisers the idea of buying the world’s biggest island.
“We are open for business, but we’re not for sale,” Greenland’s foreign minister Ane Lone Bagger said.
Trump is due to visit Copenhagen in September and the Arctic will be on the agenda during meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
Talk of a Greenland purchase was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Two sources familiar with the situation said that the notion had been laughed off by some advisers as a joke but was taken more seriously by others in the White House.
Danish politicians on Friday poured scorn on the idea.
“It has to be an April Fool’s joke. Totally out of season,” former prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Twitter.
“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” foreign affairs spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, Soren Espersen, told broadcaster DR. “The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous,” he said.
Greenland, a self-ruling part of Denmark located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is dependant on Danish econom
The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous. soren espersen Danish People’s Party
Majority in Greenland believes it is better to have a relation to Denmark than the US. aaja chemnitz larsen Danish MP
ic support. It handles its own domestic affairs while Copenhagen looks after defence and foreign policy.
“I am sure a majority in Greenland believes it is better to have a relation to Denmark than the United States, in the long term,” Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, Danish MP from Greenland’s secondlargest party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), told Reuters.
“My immediate thought is ‘No, thank you’,” she said.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod were not available for comment
but officials said they would respond later on Friday. The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen was also not immediately available for comment. “Oh dear lord. As someone who loves Greenland, has been there nine times to every corner and loves the people, this is a complete and total catastrophe,” former US ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gifford, said in on Twitter. Greenland is gaining attention from global super powers including China, Russia and the United States due to its strategic location and its mineral resources. —