Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede announced this week that he wants the island to gain its independence from Denmark as President-elect Donald Trump tries to acquire the world’s largest island to bolster U.S. national security.
“The Greenlandic people’s opportunity for independence has been adopted through the provisions of the Self-Government Act, thereby creating a legal basis for how independence can be achieved,” Egede said in a speech on New Year’s Day.
He said that the island was not treated well by Denmark, that it was still stuck in the “colonial era,” and that it was time to “move on.”
“A draft constitution for our country has also been prepared,” he said. “Work has already begun with regard to creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state within the possibilities and provisions of the Self-Government Act.”
Trump has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that it was critical for the U.S. to take control of the island for national security reasons.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said late last month.
Former Trump National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said last week that Denmark either must start defending Greenland, pay the U.S. to do defend it, or the U.S. will purchase the world’s largest island.
“Greenland is a highway from the Arctic all the way to North America, to the United States,” O’Brien said. “It’s strategically very important to the Arctic, which is going to be the critical battleground of the future, because as the climate gets warmer, the Arctic is going to be a pathway that maybe cuts down the on the usage of the Panama Canal, and the Russians and Chinese are all over the Arctic.”
“Now the Kingdom of Denmark owns Greenland, and they’ve got an obligation to defend Greenland,” he said. “And so President Trump said, ‘If you don’t defend Greenland, we’ll buy it and we’ll defend it, but we’re not going to defend it for free and let you not develop Greenland and not extract the minerals and oil and and resources of Greenland and while we defend it, Denmark gets rich, and the Kingdom of Denmark becomes even wealthier.’”
“Denmark is now on the front lines of the war against Russia and China,” he continued. “They’re like the Baltic states, like Poland, because of their vast territory in Greenland. And so they’ve got to defend Greenland. And if they can’t defend it, we’re going to have to, and we’re not going to do it for free.”
He said that the Danes needed to invest serious military resources there or “they can pay us to do it, and we’ll do it, but they can cover the cost of the defense, or if they don’t want to do either those things, they can let us buy Greenland from them and Greenland can become part of Alaska.”
“I mean, the native people in Greenland are very closely related to the people of Alaska, and we’ll make it a part of Alaska,” he concluded. “But the U.S. can’t defend it for nothing. And the days of the U.S. taxpayer defending Western Europe and the Kingdom in Europe and defending their empire for nothing, those days are over. And we love the Danish people. They’re great. Denmark’s a wonderful place. Copenhagen is a wonderful city, but, but they’ve had to do their part. They can’t have this vast empire, and not defend it and leave it to the U.S. to do it. So we’re gonna either buy it, they’re gonna defend it, or they can pay us to defend it, but it’s no more free riding.”
