"The future of Greenland must be decided in Greenland." This is the response of the icy island's prime minister, Mute Egende, to US President Donald Trump, who seeks to annex it by making it part of the US.
"We are Greenlanders, we don't want to be Americans," Egende said a day after Donald Trump's inauguration.
The US president caused concern in early January when he refused to rule out military intervention to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under US control.
Acknowledging that the situation is difficult, Denmark's foreign minister also stressed that no country can come and "take" Greenland for granted.
"We cannot have an international order in which countries, if they are big enough, can behave however they want," Lars Locke Rasmussen told reporters the day after Donald Trump took office.
Trump did not mention the Danish land in his inauguration speech yesterday, however, speaking to reporters later, he estimated that Denmark will ultimately back down from the issue.
The minister said he was pleased that Trump did not mention Greenland as a priority in his speech, but added that the "rhetoric" remains the same.
"This does not mean that there is no longer a crisis, as he has said other things about expanding American territory," said Loke Rasmussen.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in an Instagram post yesterday that Europe must "navigate into a new reality . "
Recalling the right to self-determination of the people of Greenland, she also stressed that Denmark must maintain its alliance with the United States, which she described as the most important since World War II.
The prime minister called another meeting with Danish party leaders today to brief them on the situation. "We have to accept that the next four years will be difficult," said Pia Olsendeer of the Green Left after the meeting. (A2 Televizion)
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