NEW YORK, January 17. /TASS/. A heated debate is going on among Greenlandic politicians regarding US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to incorporate the island into the United States, The Wall Street Journal Reported.
According to the report, the issue of Greenland’s independence from Denmark has become a particularly hot topic ahead of the elections to the Parliament of Greenland, which will take place in April of 2025. Some in Greenland see Trump’s plan to annex the country, which they believe will fail, as a path to ultimate independence from Denmark.
On January 7, Trump claimed that Greenland must accede to the United States. He threatened to impose high trade fees on Denmark unless it gave up the island. Trump raised the idea to buy the island back during his first presidential term. The Danish authorities dismissed this idea back then, and claim nothing has changed in this regard.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen signed a treaty on protection of Greenland in addition to their allied obligations under NATO. In accordance with the treaty, the United States vowed to defend the island from aggression. Greenland is home to US’ Pituffik space base, designed to warn about a missile attack and for monitoring of the Arctic.