He said: “We need Greenland for national security purposes. People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
Denmark is a founding member of NATO with no precedent existing for a fellow member state to threaten military action against another member, let alone commit to deploying troops.
Greenland was a Danish colony until 1979 when it became self-ruled with its own parliament. Denmark still maintains control over its foreign and defense policy.
Trump’s attempts to purchase the island are not the first by the United States. In 1867 President Andrew Johnson also considered buying the island as the country purchased Alaska.
The Truman administration also offered $100 million to purchase the island in the aftermath of World War Two according to Danish documents.
The comments come as Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr has landed in Greenland on what he says is “a private visit”.
Despite this, the trip has fueled speculation that the visit could be an official act although Trump Jr stressed that he had no plans to meet any Danish representatives.
In an effort to defuse a potential diplomatic conflict, Frederiksen stressed that she was keen to work with Washington in the Arctic, which is believed to possess an abundance of natural resources.
Climate change and the melting of ice caps is believed to be opening up access to previously unexplored areas in and around Greenland’s waters which could produce valuable rare-earth metals as global stocks dwindle.