That's what Donald Trump said in the Oval Office as he takes office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday evening local time.
- Greenland is a great place, and we need it to ensure international security. I'm sure Denmark will comply, says Trump when asked about the subject by a journalist.
Trump has recently floated the idea that the United States should take control of Greenland. In his inaugural address earlier on Monday, he did not mention Greenland at any point. But he did later in the White House when he was asked about the subject while signing presidential decrees. He had previously announced that he would sign up to 100 executive orders during his first day as president.
Donald Trump recently stated that he would not rule out the use of military force to gain control of Greenland, which he wanted to buy back in 2019 when he was president for the first time. The latest statements have since been somewhat toned down by the new US Vice President, J.D. Vance. The Prime Minister of Greenland, Múte B. Egede, has repeatedly denied that Greenland should be for sale.
In 2019, Donald Trump also received a clear rejection from the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen (S), who called the idea of buying Greenland "absurd". This led Trump to cancel an otherwise planned state visit to Denmark. This time, Mette Frederiksen is more diplomatically sly in her choice of words. She has maintained that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders".
Last week, Mette Frederiksen had a 45-minute telephone conversation with Donald Trump, which, among other things, was about his ambitions to gain control of Greenland.
Here he did not withdraw his threats to impose punitive tariffs on Danish goods if Denmark did not comply with his ambitions. The political playing field has changed significantly since 2019, not least with Russia's invasion of Ukraine three years ago, which has brought war into Europe. At the same time, the Arctic region - and thus Greenland - has become a much more central area in terms of security, where Russia, the US and China are arming.
jel /ritzau/Reuters
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