A recent opinion poll unveiled on Tuesday indicates that a staggering 85% of Greenlanders do not wish their Arctic island, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, to become part of the United States, according to Danish daily Berlingske.
The survey, conducted by pollster Verian and commissioned by Berlingske, revealed that only 6% favor joining the U.S., while 9% remain undecided. This poll comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks earlier this month, asserting that Greenland is vital to U.S. security and suggesting that Denmark should relinquish control of the strategically significant island. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring Greenland and has not ruled out the use of military force.
In response to these developments, Denmark announced on Monday its plan to allocate 14.6 billion crowns (approximately $2.04 billion) to bolster its military presence in the Arctic. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen embarked on a diplomatic tour on Tuesday, visiting three European capitals—Paris, Berlin, and Brussels—to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. She reported receiving substantial support from fellow European nations as she seeks to counter President Trump's overtures toward Greenland.
Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede, who has intensified efforts toward independence, reiterated that the island is not for sale and emphasized that its future is for its people to decide. \"It's very understandable that people are worried. But the most important thing now is that people remain calm,\" Egede stated on Tuesday. \"We must be able to meet and talk about this calmly.\" He also mentioned that his government is working to arrange a meeting with President Trump.
With a land mass larger than Mexico and a population of 57,000, Greenland was granted broad self-governing autonomy in 2009, including the right to declare independence from Denmark through a referendum. The United States maintains a permanent presence at the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a strategic location for its ballistic missile early-warning system, as the shortest route from Europe to North America runs via the island.
(With input from Reuters)
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Poll: 85% of Greenlanders do not want to be part of the U.S.
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