Greenlanders yesterday shrugged off US President Donald Trump’s vow to take over the Arctic island, seeing it merely as an opportunity to advance their own independence bid.In the quiet hallways of the University of Greenland in Nuuk, the capital of the Danish autonomous territory, Trump’s latest remarks that he would take over Greenland “one way or another” left locals largely unfazed, despite his more menacing tone this time.“For me personally, it’s just something ridiculous he would say, but I wouldn’t take it seriously because he’s basically all talk and no action,” said 23-year-old law student Peter Malik Henningsen.“That sounds very violent and it’s also very dumb … because Denmark, and Greenland, is also an ally of America,” he told AFP.In his first major policy speech on Tuesday since returning to power, Trump underlined his expansionist vision, reiterating the importance of the United States taking over the strategically-located and mineral-rich Arctic island and taking back the Panama Canal.About a quarter the size of the mainland US, Greenland’s location in the Arctic puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the US.Less than a week before general elections in Greenland where independence has dominated the campaign, Trump said he had a message for the island’s 57,000-strong population, whom he described as “incredible people”.“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said.But he then made clear he would not give up if persuasion fails, saying: “One way or the other we’re going to get it,” insisting the island was needed for reasons of national security.Trump offered to buy Greenland already during his first term as president — in vain. Since returning to the Oval Office in January, he has put the topic back on the agenda, and has this time said he wouldn’t rule out military force to get it.“Trump is like that, a bit unpredictable at times but I’m not worried,” said another law student, David Jensen.“We’re part of Nato, the United States are part of Nato, so I’m not worried,” insisted the 20-year-old who hails from one of the northernmost regions of Greenland.In her office at the university overlooking an ice-covered fjord, political scientist Maria Ackren put Trump’s remarks into perspective.“There is no panic,” she told AFP. “Here in Greenland, people are very calm, and you take one day at a time.”“He’s more threatening for the whole world, actually, for the kind of world order that we have,” she said, adding that there “will probably be hard negotiations coming up with Trump.”Meanwhile, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede reacted forcefully.“We don’t want to be Americans, or Danes either. We are Greenlanders. The Americans and their leader must understand that,” Egede wrote in a Facebook post yesterday.“We are not for sale and can’t just be taken. Our future is decided by us in Greenland,” he said.In Denmark, of which Greenland has been a part since 1721, authorities have repeatedly rejected Trump’s advances, insisting it is up to the people of Greenland to determine their future.According to a poll conducted in January, around 85 percent of Greenlanders said they did not want to leave Denmark to join the United States. Only six percent were in favour.Even Jorgen Boassen, a Greenlandic pro-Trump figure who took part in a highly publicised visit that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr made to the island in January, is against a US takeover of Greenland.Greenland “should become a state” in its own right, he told AFP yesterday.Leaving an election debate on Tuesday evening in Nuuk, even before Trump had made his latest statements, Aputsiaq Inuk Petersen, a hunter, fisherman and switchboard operator, said he was pleased that the Trump administration’s interest in Greenland had propelled the territory onto the world stage.“It’s good for Greenland,” the 23-year-old said, “because now everyone knows about Greenland and its people.”
