Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede told Fox News on Thursday that residents in his country “don’t want to be Americans” and “don’t want to be a part of” the United States, amid President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in purchasing the Danish territory.
During an interview with Egede, Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier asked, “You’ve heard the statements from the president-elect. What do you make of all of that?”
Egede replied:
We will always be part of NATO. We will always be a strong partner for U.S. We are close neighbors, we have been cooperating in the last 80 years, and I think the future have a lot to offer to cooperate with, but we want to also be clear. We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be a part of U.S., but we want a strong cooperation together with U.S.
After Baier asked, “If you had a vote, a referendum, to have independence from Denmark, would the residents of Greenland vote for that?” Egede responded:
Yeah, but it’s up to the Greenlandic people to decide when we want to be independent, and I think it’s important to see that if Greenland takes those steps, we will always be a part of the Western alliance and a strong partner for U.S. because your security is our security.
“President Trump, as you know, can be persuasive,” remarked Baier. “Are you saying tonight that Greenland is not for sale?”
Egede concluded, “Greenland and the future of Greenland will be decided by the Greenlandic people, and the Greenlandic people don’t want to be Danes, the Greenlandic people don’t want to be Americans. Greenlandic people want to be part of the Western alliance as Greenlandic people.”
In recent months, Trump and his allies have repeatedly discussed the possibility of purchasing Greenland for its oil, minerals, and geopolitical benefits.
“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” said Trump this month, before suggesting that Denmark may not even have “any legal right to it.”
The president-elect’s son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland this month, where he spoke to locals before arguing that the annexation of the territory would be “a total no-brainer.”
Vice President-elect JD Vance told Fox News last week that the United States wouldn’t need to take Greenland by “force,” noting that there were already U.S. troops on the island.
Watch above via Fox News.