COPENHAGEN: Greenland´s prime minister said on Tuesday the Danish autonomous territory wanted to stake out its own future and did not want to become American, following US President Donald Trump´s renewed remarks about taking control of the island.

Trump, who took office on Monday, set off alarm bells in early January by refusing to rule out military intervention to bring the Panama Canal and Greenland under US control. While Trump didn´t mention Greenland in his inauguration speech on Monday, he was asked about it by reporters in the Oval Office afterwards.

“Greenland is a wonderful place, we need it for international security,” Trump responded. “I´m sure that Denmark will come along — it´s costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it,” he added.

But Greenlandic and Danish officials on Tuesday defended the Arctic island´s right to self-determination. “We are Greenlanders. We don´t want to be Americans. We don´t want to be Danish either. Greenland´s future will be decided by Greenland,” Prime Minister Mute Egede told a press conference.

“Our country and our people will decide what happens to Greenland,” he said. Noting that the country was facing a “difficult situation”, Egede reiterated that Nuuk was open to talks with Washington to safeguard US interests in the Arctic, at a time when rivalries with China and Russia in the region are growing.

The United States has an active military base in the northwest of Greenland, which has a strategic location in the Arctic as ice melts due to climate change and opens up new shipping lanes.