Copenhagen, Mar. 14, (dpa/GNA) – Greenland’s outgoing leader has sent an irate riposte to US President Donald Trump after his latest comments about the annexation of the world’s largest island.
“Now the US president has once again floated the idea of annexing us. I cannot accept that under any circumstances,” wrote acting Prime Minister Múte B Egede on Facebook.
He would convene the other political leaders as soon as possible, Egede said three days after his party’s election defeat, because this time the rejection of Trump must be tightened.
Such disrespect of Greenlanders could no longer be tolerated, said Egede, adding in his post late Thursday: “Enough is enough.”
His possible successor as head of government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen of the centre-right Demokraatit (Democrats) party, also rejected the US president’s comments.
“Trump’s statement in the US is inappropriate and just shows once again that we have to stand together in situations like this,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook.
Nielsen campaigned for Greenland’s right to decide its own future as it moves toward independence from Denmark. Underscoring this, his party’s election manifesto stated: “Greenland is not for sale. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”
However, Trump has been talking for months about wanting to take control of Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark.
At a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the White House on Thursday, he further stoked the issue when responding to a reporter’s question about his plans for a possible annexation.
“I think it will happen,” said Trump, emphasizing the island’s great strategic importance and the fact that Denmark is very far away from it.
Egede has repeatedly emphasized that his countrymen want to be neither Danes nor Americans, but Greenlanders.
GNA