Greenland's prime minister says the US will not get the island
Greenland's Prime Minister-elect, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has stated that the United States will not take control of the Arctic territory, in response to the expressed wishes of US President Donald Trump. A few days ago, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance visited a U.S. military base there and accused Denmark of doing a poor job maintaining security on the island, which has controlled Greenland since 1721, and suggested that the United States should better protect the strategically located island.
"President Trump claims the United States will keep Greenland. Let's be clear: the United States will not. We don't belong to anyone else. We decide our own future," Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.
On Saturday, Trump told NBC that he had, without a doubt, held serious talks about annexing the semi-autonomous Danish territory. "We'll keep Greenland. Yes, 100%," Trump said, according to NBC.
During a visit to a U.S. military base in northern Greenland on Friday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance accused Denmark of not doing a good enough job of maintaining the security of the island, which has controlled Greenland since 1721, and suggested that the United States should better protect the strategically located island. These statements came hours after Greenland formed a new broad-based governing coalition led by Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who called Denmark its closest ally.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen himself said that Vance's description of Denmark was unfair. "I have the deepest respect for the way the Greenlandic people and politicians are handling the enormous pressure Greenland is under," he said. "This is a situation that demands the unity of all political parties and all countries in the kingdom," he added.
A little history
Greenland has been inhabited at intervals over at least the last 4,500 years by circumpolar peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada. Norsemen from Norway settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century (having previously settled Iceland), and their descendants lived in Greenland for 400 years until disappearing in the late 15th century. The 13th century saw the arrival of Inuit.
Since the late 15th century, the Portuguese had been attempting to find the northern route to Asia, which ultimately led to the earliest cartographic depiction of its coastline.
In the 17th century, Dano-Norwegian explorers reached Greenland again, finding their earlier settlement extinct and reestablishing a permanent Scandinavian presence on the island. When Denmark and Norway separated in 1814, Greenland was transferred from the Norwegian to the Danish crown. The 1953 Constitution of Denmark ended Greenland's status as a colony, integrating it fully into the Danish state.
In the 1979 Greenlandic home rule referendum, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland; in the 2008 Greenlandic self-government referendum, Greenlanders voted for the Self-Government Act, which transferred more power from the Danish government to the local Naalakkersuisut (Greenlandic government).
Danish Prime Minister to visit Greenland next week
Given this climate of tension between the semi-autonomous Danish territory and the United States, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will visit Greenland from April 2 to 4 to hold talks with the new Greenlandic government.
"I look forward to continued close, trust-based cooperation between Greenland and Denmark," Frederiksen said in a statement on Saturday.