The Prime Minister of Greenland has sent Donald Trump a defiant demand after the president made yet another threat to annex the Arctic country, which has a population of just 57,000 people.
President Trump threatened to take over the territory this week after launching a large-scale air attack on Venezuela and abducting its leader Nicolás Maduro from a safe house near Caracas.
He defended his unlawful action as a new version of the Monroe Doctrine, a 200-year-old piece of foreign policy agreed with the British Empire that placed the entirety of the continent of the Americas in the US’ sphere of influence. Trump called his new version the ‘Donroe Doctrine’.
Echoing this old philosophy, the president renewed his threat to annex the largely unpopulated landmass on Sunday, arguing to reporters that ‘we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security’. But the country’s PM Jens Frederik Nielsen has hit back and told Trump to ‘stop the threats’.
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The population of Greenland is 0.019 percent of the USA’s, with just 57000 residents (Getty Images)
The blowback came after Trump’s most concerning comments yet about the sovereignty of the US’ neighbors, also making threats to help topple the governments of Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia.
Of Greenland, Trump argued: “You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It’s true. They thought that was a great move.”
He even appeared to give a time scale for the annexation discussion, adding: “We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months … let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
“That’s enough now,” Nielsen said in response to the threats on the autonomous Danish territory, which has been coveted by US expansionists since 1867, and was even occupied for several years by American troops during and after World War Two.
Nielsen acknowledged that his country’s ‘strategic location’ made it reliant on US military support, which is guaranteed through the NATO alliance. “But alliances are built on trust. And trust requires respect,” he said in a Facebook post to his 57,000 citizens.
Greenland is the largest island on Earth, but is barely inhabitable for most of the year (Getty Images)
“Threats, pressure and talk of annexation do not belong anywhere between friends. That’s not how you talk to a people who have repeatedly shown responsibility, stability and loyalty.
This is enough.”
President Trump has been making threats since 2019 to make a deal to acquire the autonomous territory, which has its own parliament and runs its own economy. Foreign policy and financial backing for Greenland is provided by the Kingdom of Denmark, with its citizens holding Danish passports.
“No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation,” Nielsen demanded after Trump’s latest comments. “Greenland is our home and our territory. And that’s how it continues to be.”
And it does not look like Denmark is backing down either over Greenland, sharing a history with the landmass that stretches back to the Viking era. “I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland,” Danish PM Mette Frederiksen said over the weekend.
However, influential figures at the top of the administration seem to have their eyes firmly set on Greenland, with former aide and wife of Stephen Miller, Katie Miller, sharing a picture of Greenland draped in the US flag, with the caption, ‘soon’.
