Greenland’s Prime Minister Calls for Independence from Denmark Days After Trump Ally Floats Merging Island With Alaska
Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede said Wednesday he would like to see the autonomous territory break away from Denmark in a New Year’s Day address to inhabitants of the world’s largest island.
In an address that was delivered Wednesday and flagged by The Hill on Friday afternoon, Egede said a constitution for an independent Greenland had been drafted as he slammed “colonialism.” Egede’s remarks were also delivered amid continued comments from President-elect Donald Trump and those in his orbit about purchasing the territory – including one earlier this week about merging it with Alaska.
In his speech, Greenland’s leader laid out a vision for what he said independence could look like, including proposals for health, education, and self-governance.
But he also slammed “colonialism.” According to a translation of his remarks from Greenlandic to English, Egede stated:
Just as we now stand on the threshold of a new year, so our country stands on the threshold of a new era – and for new opportunities. New opportunities oblige us to renewed work to improve and shape our future and our country. In common with the rest of the world, especially with our neighbors and friends, we must now take steps to develop a stronger cooperation.
It is now time to take the next step for our country. Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation – which we can refer to as the chains of colonialism – and move forward. History and current circumstances have shown that our cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark has not been able to create full equality, and if we continue to take as a starting point the Danish Constitution, there cannot be an equal cooperation.
Egede added that a plan to seek independence had been in the works for “years.”
“Work has already begun with a view to creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state within the possibilities and provisions of the Self-Government Act,” he said. “A new development for Greenland is on the horizon.”
The prime minister did not mention comments from Trump or his surrogates in the media about purchasing the territory – or forcing the Danish to potentially hand it over if they won’t put up resources to “defend” it.
On Sunday, former Trump administration National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told Fox News:
The Arctic is going to be a pathway that maybe – maybe even cuts down on the usage of the Panama Canal. And the Russians and Chinese are all over the Arctic. Now, the Danes gathered, the Kingdom of Denmark owns Greenland, and they’ve got an obligation to defend Greenland. And so President Trump said, if you don’t defend Greenland, we’ll buy it and we’ll defend it, but we’re not going to defend it for free and like, you know, and not develop Greenland and not extract the minerals and oil and resources of Greenland.
O’Brien concluded, “But they can cover the cost of the fence. Or if they don’t want to do either those things, they can they can let us buy Greenland from and Greenland can become part of Alaska.”
