Greenlandic politician from the Cooperation Party, Tillie Martinussen, warned that the Arctic island nation has the means to protect itself from US President Donald Trump's ambition over Greenland.
"We know about the treaties that we have with America. This is very much akin to when you have a dog sledge team. When he's using that analogy, and one of the dogs all of a sudden turns around and bites you. You have to take it out of the kennel. You have to take it outside and shoot it," Martinussen said in an interview in Nuuk on Saturday.
"America has 10,000 soldiers who are for combat in Arctic society. Finland alone has 35,000. We also could impose – if we wanted to escalate stuff, we could also impose, like, dropping all American Treasury bonds, right? That would hurt," the politician continued.
Commenting on Trump's chances of acquiring the island, the politician stressed that only six per cent of islanders were 'pro-American' last year, doubting his support among Greenlanders has rocketed since.
"I think Trump doesn't know about Greenlandic people. We don't really value cash, and Kardashian lips, and fake boobs, and stuff like that very highly. Actually, you cannot even own land in Greenland. You can get an allotment for your house, and then you own the house on top of the land. But Greenlanders don't believe in the land is for one person. It's for everyone," she said.
"It's a big miscalculation that he thinks that Greenlanders would be incentivised by cash or something like that. We're not. And even if you were to say, like, 100,000 dollars per person or something like that, we wouldn't give up free healthcare. We wouldn't give up free education," Martinussen said.
In addition, the US President's recent international and domestic policy, the US operation in Venezuela and ICE issues in particular, have negatively impacted his image, according to Martinussen.
"See how greedy they are?" she questioned, adding, "They're even trying to shoot their friends or invade their friends just for greed. And we know that there are minerals and oils possibly in our underground."
Nevertheless, the politician advocated for the peaceful settlement of the issue, calling against turning the 800,000-square-mile island into a ‘battleground’ of the NATO allies.
"We still want to be friends. But as you saw today, the Canadian Prime Minister, he went to China to try and make new relations. So if Donald Trump wants a new world order, okay, then that's what he's going to get," Martinussen noted.
The comment comes amid Trump's ongoing row with Europe over Greenland, with the US leader repeatedly insisting he needs to take over the Danish territory for security reasons.
Earlier this week, Trump vowed that Greenland will belong to the United States 'one way or the other', warning that if the US does not act, Russia or China will. Russia has repeatedly dismissed these claims, stating 'neither Russia nor China has announced any such plans'.
Denmark, which is a founding member of NATO, has repeatedly rejected any proposal to sell the territory, reaffirming Danish sovereignty over the island.
Several European countries, including Denmark and France, have deployed small contingents of troops to Greenland as part of NATO exercises aimed at safeguarding the island’s sovereignty.
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Frédéric Jacobs
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