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Incoming US President Donald Trump has stepped up his ambitions to buy Greenland as Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to the House of Representatives, provocatively called the Make Greenland Great Again Act.
The bill circulated for cosponsors on Monday would allow Trump to start negotiations with Denmark to purchase the territory at 12:01 p.m. EST on 20 January.
Although Democratic leadership in the US Congress has scoffed at Trump’s expansionist ambitions, Axios reported that some moderate Democratic lawmakers have signalled they are open to the idea.
Trump first mentioned buying Greenland during his first term in 2019.
He then ruffled feathers in Europe several times in the last weeks after he said he wanted to buy the territory, a part of EU and NATO member Denmark, while not ruling out military or economic muscle to do so.
His son then paid Greenland’s capital a surprise visit, fuelling further speculation.
However, officials from Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly stated that the autonomous region is not up for sale.
“We do not want to be Danes, we do not want to be Americans – of course, we want to be Greenlanders,” the Greenlandic Premier Múte B. Egede said at a press conference in Copenhagen on Friday.
On Monday, talking to local and international press in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, Egede said he was looking forward to building closer ties with the US.
Axios reported that Danish officials have contacted Trump’s team to underline their openness to expanding the US military presence in Greenland.
Greenlandic media KNR also reported that the premier was open to the US in mining and trade, adding that they were keen to seek opportunities for cooperation with Trump.
Since 2009, Greenland has held the right to declare independence from Denmark. The island of some 56,000 inhabitants, which relies on significant budget transfers from Copenhagen each year, has so far refrained from doing so.
Greenland is due to hold parliamentary elections before 6 April.
[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]
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