Nuuk (AFP) – More than 500 Greenlanders demonstrated this week against US President Donald Trump’s desire to control the vast Arctic island, after the inauguration of the US consulate’s new premises in Nuuk. The crowd chanted and held posters reading “Go Home USA,” “Make America Go Away!” and “We are not for sale” at the rally in the island nation’s capital late on Thursday. Many waved Greenland’s red-and-white flag, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. “Asu (‘Stop’ in Greenlandic) USA,” read another sign.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Washington needs to control Greenland because of national security concerns, claiming that if it does not, the Danish autonomous territory risks falling into the hands of China or Russia. The demonstrators turned their backs on the US consulate building and observed two minutes of silence to express their displeasure with the United States. “Greenland belongs to us. It’s our country. It doesn’t belong to Denmark or the United States. We are a people and we live here,” 68-year-old Greenlander Grethe Kramer Berthelsen told AFP.
The new premises, in the centre of the capital Nuuk, had been inaugurated a little earlier in the presence of the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Howery. Greenlandic broadcaster KNR reported that Howery told guests at the inauguration that Trump had now ruled out the use of force to control Greenland and said that Greenlanders would decide their future themselves. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, had declined an invitation to take part in the inauguration.
Earlier in the week, Nielsen held talks with Trump’s special envoy for Greenland, Jeff Landry, who made his first visit—uninvited—to the island since his appointment in December. Landry told AFP on Wednesday that the US needed to strengthen its presence in the territory. “It’s time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland,” he said as he wound up his four-day visit. “Greenland needs the US,” he insisted.
© 2024 AFP
