Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede has repeatedly pushed back against speculation the island could be up for grabs, stressing his people’s agency in the debate.
“We don’t want to be Danes. We don’t want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders,” he told reporters earlier this month.
Trump first mulled acquiring the vast Arctic island and its mineral resources during his first term in office, but was rebuffed by Copenhagen. Greenland has been a Danish territory since 1953 and was a colony before that.
Egede is keen to hold a referendum that could see the island become independent from Denmark, and freer to chart its own future.
But the emboldened U.S. president has returned to office with a renewed fixation on taking over Greenland, ostensibly to bolster American presence in the Arctic amid polar competition with Russia and China.
That has sparked alarm in Copenhagen, and among key European governments.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen embarked on a whirlwind diplomatic tour of European capitals Tuesday, in a bid to shore up support for stopping Trump taking Greenland by force or economic coercion — as he has threatened to do.
