More than 500 Greenlanders have demonstrated in the capital Nuuk against US President Donald Trump’s stated desire to take control of the vast Arctic island.
The rally was held late on May 21, shortly after the inauguration of new premises for the US consulate in the city, news agency AFP reported.
Protesters chanted slogans and held up placards reading “Go Home USA”, “Make America Go Away!” and “We are not for sale”. Another sign read “Asu USA” — “Asu” meaning “Stop” in Greenlandic.
Many of those gathered waved Greenland’s red-and-white flag, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The demonstrators turned their backs on the US consulate building and observed two minutes of silence to register their objection to American policy towards the territory.
“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.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Washington needs to control Greenland on national security grounds. He has claimed that, if it does not, the Danish autonomous territory could fall into the hands of China or Russia.
The new consulate premises in central Nuuk had been opened a little earlier the same day in the presence of 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.
Howery also said that Greenlanders themselves would decide their own future, according to KNR.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen had declined the invitation to attend the opening.
Nielsen had also held talks earlier the same week with Trump’s special envoy for Greenland, Jeff Landry, who made his first visit to the island — uninvited — since his appointment in December.
Landry told AFP on May 20 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 added.
The Danish Government has previously rejected Trump’s overtures regarding Greenland, with officials in Copenhagen stressing that the island is not for sale.
Greenland is the world’s largest island and home to about 57,000 people. It has been a self-governing territory of Denmark since 1979 and is considered to hold significant strategic value owing to its position in the Arctic and its rare-earth mineral deposits.
Tensions over the island’s future have risen since Trump began openly discussing American control of Greenland during his current term, prompting concern in both Copenhagen and Nuuk about the territory’s political integrity.
