The US president has previously made it clear that he would like to take control of Greenland, which is currently an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump has previously said he was working to make Greenland part of the US and declared that ‘one way or the other, we’re going to get it’, a message that didn’t go down well with Greenlanders.
They’ve made it clear they have no interest in annexation, and Greenland’s incoming prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen made it clear after his party’s surprise general election victory that they ‘don’t want to be Americans’.
He said: “We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes.
“We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves.”
Greenland’s current prime minister Múte Bourup Egede said that they ‘do not wish to be Americans’ in a response to Trump’s previous comments about how the US would take over ‘one way or the other’.
While there is an independence movement within Greenland, there is not a rush to embrace the US as new overlords, but despite this Trump has once again spoken of his desire to own it.
Donald Trump has spoken out on Greenland once again (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump told reporters that the US needed Greenland for ‘international security’.
Trump was asked by reporters whether the US would annex Greenland and gave his opinion.
He said: “Well I think it will happen, I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought – but I’m sitting with a man who could be very instrumental.
“You know Mark, we need it for international security, not just security, but international.”
Trump made the comments while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who said he didn’t ‘want to drag NATO into that’ (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump then said other countries were ‘cruising around the coasts’ which meant the US had to be ‘careful’.
The man he was sitting with didn’t seem interested in backing him up over plans for the US to annex Greenland.
Rutte said: “When it comes to Greenland, I don’t want to drag NATO into that.
“But when it comes to the Arctic you’re totally right. The Chinese are now using these routes, we know the Russians are re-arming, we know we have a lack of ice-breakers.
“Certain Arctic countries working together on this under US leadership is very important – we know things are changing, but we have to be there.”
