Danish PM says Trump still ‘very serious’ about acquiring Greenland

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Saturday that President Trump remains intent on acquiring Greenland.

“I think the desire from the U.S. president is exactly the same. He’s very serious about this,” Frederiksen said at the Munich Security Conference, according to the BBC.

Throughout December and January, the president raised his view that the U.S. should take control of the semi-sovereign Danish territory, arguing it is essential for national security. The U.S. operates Pituffik Space Base on the mineral-rich island.

Trump reached what he called the “framework of a deal” on Greenland with NATO Secretary Mark Rutte last month at the World Economic Forum. That prompted the president to back off tariffs he previously threatened on goods from European allies, who backed Greenland’s sovereignty amid his overtures.

“It’s the ultimate long-term deal, and I think it puts everyone in a pretty good position especially as it pertains to security and minerals and everything else,” the president told reporters at the time.

However, nearly a month after Trump and Rutte reached that framework agreement, talks between U.S. and Danish officials have progressed without a final resolution.

“We are not out of the crisis, and we do not have a solution yet,” Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said earlier this month, according to CTV News.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted last month by The Copenhagen Post found that 76 percent of Greenlanders oppose being part of the U.S. and just 8 percent support such a move. Greenland was fully integrated into Denmark in 1953, after being a Danish colony for over a century.