BURSTGreenland's new prime minister wants President Trump to back off talks about the U.S. taking over the arctic island, after Vice President Vance's recent visit and Trump's latest claim that the U.S. will "get Greenland ... 100 percent."
“Let me be clear: The United States will not get that," Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who was sworn in on Friday, said in a social media post Sunday. "We do not belong to others. We decide our own future."
Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, has been on a path toward sovereignty, which is widely supported among the island’s nearly 58,000 residents.
The center-right Demokraatit party, led by Nielsen, unexpectedly won this month's parliamentary elections and supports a gradual move to becoming an independent country.
Trump has argued since his return to the White House in January that the U.S. needs to annex Greenland for national security reasons because of its location in the Arctic.
Trump told NBC News in an interview Saturday that he “absolutely” has had serious discussions with members of his administration about ways to claim Greenland.
“We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100 percent,” Trump said, adding that he wouldn't rule out the use of military force.
Nielsen wrote on Facebook that the country won't be "shaken" by Trump's remarks.
"We must react with calm, dignity and unity," he wrote. "And it is through these values that we must clearly, distinctly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours."
Vance traveled to Greenland Friday on a visit that included second lady Usha Vance, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and national security adviser Mike Waltz.
The delegation was initially expected to meet with Greenlanders and take in cultural events, but the trip was cut short after officials in Nuuk and Copenhagen spoke out and residents reportedly refused to welcome the American leaders.
Former Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede called out the visit last week while still in office, arguing the trip was part of a "very aggressive American pressure against Greenlandic society."
While touring an American military defense site on the island, Vance downplayed the U.S. takeover talk.
"We do not think military force is ever going to be necessary," Vance said at Pituffik Space Base. "What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self-determination, to become independent of Denmark, and then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there."