Greenland’s leader Múte Egede said that he is prepared to start negotiations with President-elect Donald Trump about the future of the Arctic island.
But he did warn the president-elect that his people were not interested in becoming a part of the United States, The New York Post reported.
The president-elect has famously said that he would like to purchase Greenland, though many believe that was simply an opening salvo to begin negotiations, which has worked.
The leader spoke at a press conference in Denmark on Friday, where he said he knows that Greenland was “a place that the Americans see as part of their world” and that he has not spoken with the president-elect but that he was open to “discussions about what unites us.”
“We are ready to talk,” Egede said. “Cooperation is about dialogue. Cooperation means that you will work towards solutions.”
Greenland is a territory of Denmark, and it has been self-governing since 1953. In 2009 it won the right to declare independence if it chooses to in the future, which Egede said he wants.
“We have a desire for independence, a desire to be the master of our own house … This is something everyone should respect,” he said. “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.”
Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman, who is meeting with the president-elect, said he is open to talks about Greenland.
To that end he confirmed to reporters on Friday that he will be heading to Florida to meet with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago home, CBS News reported.
“That is the plan. Yes, we are going to have a conversation,” the senator said of their planned meeting.
Fetterman will be the first elected Democrat senator to have a formal meeting with Trump since his election in November.
“I think that one, he’s the president, or he will be officially,” the maverick senator said. “And I think it’s pretty reasonable that if the president would like to have a conversation — or invite someone to have a conversation — to have it. And no one is my gatekeeper.”
“I’ve been very clear that I have ongoing conversations with people that are going to have an impact on Pennsylvania and for the nation,” he said. “And I am a senator for Pennsylvania, not just for Democrats. I am a senator for everyone in Pennsylvania.”
As most Democrats scoffed at Trump’s plans to gain control of Greenland, Fetterman did not dismiss the idea.
“I have no idea what’s going to exactly come up. So, I mean, regardless of whatever comes up, that’s going to be part of the conversation,” he said to CBS News.
He later joked with reporters who asked him why he was going to meet with the president-elect, saying, “I’m angling to be named the pope of Greenland.”
In December Fetterman placed blame for the Democrat defeat on former House Speaker and Democrat California Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
During an interview with Politico, Fetterman went after Pelosi when asked if he thought President Joe Biden should have dropped out of the race after the terrible debate with Donald Trump.
“People like [Nancy] Pelosi, she really tried to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — she embraced this ‘she’s the godmother, she’s the enforcer.’ And now she’s blaming Biden,” Fetterman said, holding nothing back while blaming Pelosi for trying to pull power moves.
“Well, you can’t have it both ways. You got what you wanted,” he added, referring to Biden’s ouster and the installment of Kamala Harris, “and now you’re still blaming Biden.”
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