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The prime minister of Greenland has called for everyone to respect for the territory’s independence, as US president-elect Donald Trump continues to express his desire to take it under US-control.
Mute Egede, who has led the semi-autonomous Danish territory since 2021, says he has not spoken to Donald Trump, who said this week that US ownership and control is an “absolute necessity” to guarantee American security.
At a joint press conference with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen, Mr Egede said: “We have a desire for independence, a desire to be the master of our own house … This is something everyone should respect.”
Greenland is willing to increase dialogue with the US, Mr Egede added, and it will continue to cooperate with the Trump administration.
But Mr Trump has not ruled out using military or economic action such as tariffs against Denmark to gain control of the island.
Greenland also wants to be given more influence over its own foreign policy from the Kingdom of Denmark, Mr Egedesaid during the conference. It is the larger of two autonomous territories within the Kingdom of Denmark, with all of its roughly 57,000 inhabitants full citizens of the north European country.
The row was sparked when Mr Trump called for the US to buy Greenland in a post on his Truth Social platform in December.
“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,” Mr Trump, who will take office on 20 January, wrote on Truth Social.
He was instantly rebuked by Mr Egede, who said in a statement in late December: “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Greenland has been tied politically and culturally to Denmark for over a century, but the US has a small military presence on the island, which hosts one of its vital early-warning missile defense systems.
Earlier this week, Danish King Frederik demonstrated his intention to keep the territory within his kingdom, when he changed the royal coat of arms to feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands – the other of the two autonomous territories – more prominently.
In the new version of the coat of arms, images of a polar bear and ram, which symbolise the two territories, were enlarged. It appeared to be a rebuke to Donald Trump’s comments about Greenland.
King Frederik said in his first speech of 2025: “We are all united and each of us committed for the kingdom of Denmark. From the Danish minority in South Schleswig – which is even situated outside the kingdom – and all the way to Greenland. We belong together.”
US interest in buying Greenland did not start with Mr Trump – rather it dates back to 1867, when then-secretary of state William Seward issued the first push to buy the territory.
