Greenland PM says Trump’s threats disrespectful

COPENHAGEN: Greenland will never never be a “piece of property” to be bought, the Arctic island´s new prime minister said on Sunday, criticising US talk of seizing the Danish autonomous territory as lacking respect.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen made the comments as he paid his first visit to Denmark since taking office, with US President Donald Trump´s repeated threats to take his strategically located island looming large over the diplomatic trip.

“We will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by anyone, and that´s the message I think is most important to understand,” Nielsen told reporters alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

His visit follows one by Frederiksen to Greenland in early April, when she told the United States “you cannot annex another country”. Both Frederiksen and Nielsen, who leads Greenland´s new coalition government after his centre-right Democrats party won a legislative election in March, however said they would be willing to meet the US leader for talks.

Tensions between the United States and Denmark have soared after Trump repeatedly said he wanted to take control of the resource-rich Arctic island. The US president has insisted Washington needs control of Greenland for security reasons, refusing to rule out the use of force to secure it. “I think we need that for international peace, and if we don´t have that it´s a big threat to our world. So I think Greenland is very important for international peace,” Trump told reporters Thursday during a press conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.