London: Britain would have the right to buy Greenland before the US, the island’s last Danish minister has said.

Tom Hoyem was Copenhagen’s last permanent representative in the Arctic territory, which established its parliament in 1979 and began a new era of self-rule 30 years later.

Donald Trump has made clear to Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, that he wants to place Greenland under American control.

But Hoyem said Trump would require approval from Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer because of an undertaking signed in 1917, the first time the US was interested in acquiring the island.

“If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” Hoyem told The Sunday Times.

“The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold then the UK should have the first right to buy it.”

The demand arose because Canada was a British dominion at the time and lies only a few miles from Greenland. The countries have shared a land border since 2022.

Hoyem said that Woodrow Wilson, US president at the time, then agreed that Greenland was and would always be Danish.
Denmark was said to have been in “crisis mode” after a 45-minute call between Trump and Frederiksen before the inauguration.

According to the Financial Times, Frederiksen told Trump that Greenland was not for sale despite his “big interest”.

Trump was then said to have become “aggressive” and threatened to pummel Denmark with tariffs unless it agreed to sell Greenland.

In a press conference before the call, the US president said his main motivation for acquiring Greenland was “national security”.

A source on Trump’s team said the purpose of the planned expansion was to send a “strong, deliberate message to Beijing” that American interests in the Arctic would be protected.

In response, his father said: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are MAGA.”

The Pentagon’s latest Arctic strategy, published late last year, shows China is taking an increased interest in the region.

Denmark has previously been willing to sell its overseas territories, offering the Danish West Indies to Prussia in 1864 and to the US in 1867.

A deal was eventually struck during World War I, when the islands were sold to the US for $US25 million, equivalent to about $US700 million ($1.11 billion) today, and renamed the US Virgin Islands.

The Telegraph, London

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/trump-s-after-greenland-he-might-have-to-ask-the-british-if-they-want-it-first-20250127-p5l7e9.html

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