Denmark’s prime minister said Sunday that the idea recently floated by President Trump to buy Greenland is “absurd.”
During a visit to Greenland, a Danish territory, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuffed the notion that the world’s largest island is up for sale, according to The Associated Press.
{mosads}“Greenland is not Danish. Greenland is Greenlandic,” she said, the AP reported. “I persistently hope that this is not something that is seriously meant.”
Trump on Sunday told reporters that buying Greenland is a “strategically” interesting idea and compared the proposition to a “large real estate deal.”
“Strategically, it’s interesting and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to them a little bit. It’s not No. 1 on the burner, I can tell you that,” Trump said.
Frederiksen reportedly noted how vast Greenland’s natural resources are, saying the Arctic’s exploitation by Russia and others for commercial purposes “is becoming increasingly important to the entire world community.”
“Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over. Let’s leave it there. Jokes aside, we will of course love to have an even closer strategic relationship with the United States,” Frederiksen added, according to the AP.
Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark early next month as part of a larger trip to Europe, but he said the trip had nothing to do with recent reports of his administration’s interest in purchasing Greenland, where a U.S. Air Force base is located.