“We are for sale and never will be,” says Greenland’s prime minister
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President-elect Donald Trump has argued that the U.S. should buy Greenland since his first term in the White House.
The island, which has a population of 56,000, is an autonomous territory of Denmark, and the Danish government and local government have stated that the island is not for sale.
But that did deter the president-elect.
“For reasons of national security and freedom in the world, the United States of America believes that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he wrote in Truth Social last month in announcing his choice for ambassador, co-founder of PayPal. Kenneth Howery, in Denmark.
Greenland is about 3 times the length of Texas and is located in northeastern Canada. Denmark has ruled the island for more than 200 years and maintains part of its foreign policy, the Washington Post noted.
“We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has said.
Meanwhile, Trump says owning Greenland is a national security imperative. The United States has a base on the island, Pituffik Space Base, and the island is in a strategically vital location for missile defense and area surveillance missions, according to The Post. The base built at the beginning of the Cold War.
The island is over 800,000 square miles and has many natural resources, including oil and rare terrestrial minerals. In 2019, Senator Tom Cotton wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the purchase of Greenland was strategic, highlighting China’s attempt to acquire a former US naval base on the island in 2016 and several attempts across the country to build airports there. Training
Denmark controlled the island from the early 18th century until 1979. The island is now self-ruled when it comes to local issues, a Danish government site states. The Nordic country also maintains the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic as an autonomous territory.
In 2009, Greenland passed the Self-Government Act, leading to issues of self-government, defense and foreign policy still falling to Denmark.
Former Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told the Post in 2019 that “other Greenlanders have their own rights. ”
Greenland’s residents are Danish and have two representatives in the Danish parliament. The country’s indigenous peoples make up the majority of the island’s population.
The United States has purchased Greenland in the past: President Andrew Johnson’s administration reported in the 1860s that the island’s natural resources could be a smart investment, but the concept did not become a reality at the time.
The administration of President Harry Truman offered $100 million for the island just after the end of the Second World War.
Because of its natural resources and industries, acquiring the island could cost up to $1. 7 trillion, The Post estimates.
Last month, the Danish government announced new defense spending for Greenland amounting to around $1. 5 billion. Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said plans to building up defense spending on the island were drawn up before Trump’s new calls to purchase Greenland.
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