Denmark will "come along" on the sale of Greenland to the United States, according to President Donald Trump, but the country's foreign minister said Tuesday that nations can't just "help themselves" to other countries.
"Greenland is a wonderful place," Trump told reporters Monday night while signing executive orders at the Oval Office, reports The Hill. "We need fair, international security, and I am sure that Denmark will come along. I think it's costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it."
But Denmark Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters Tuesday that world order keeps countries from seizing other lands.
"Of course, we can't have a world order where countries, if they're big enough, no matter what they're called, can just help themselves to what they want, " Rasmussen said, reports Agence France-Presse.
Trump didn't mention Greenland as a priority in his inauguration speech, the Danish leader said, adding that he was "satisfied" by that but said his "rhetoric" remained the same.
"It doesn't make me call off any crisis, because he said other things about expanding the American territory," Rasmussen told the Danish media.
Trump has been insisting since his election that Greenland, an autonomous territory that is controlled by Denmark, should come under the control of the United States and that owning the island is an "absolute necessity."
He also said that the island's population of more than 56,000 people is "not happy with Denmark."
"I think they are happy with us," Trump said Monday, noting that his son, Donald Trump Jr., and other representatives went to Greenland two weeks ago.
"They like us so we will what happens, but Greenland is necessary not for us; it's necessary for international security," Trump said. "You have Russian boats all over the place, you have China boats all over the place, warships, and they can't maintain it."
Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said in an interview last week that his country's residents "don't want to be Danes. We don't even want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders."
He also said that Greenland is not up for sale, but the country still wants to have business dealings with the United States.
"We will always be a part of NATO. We will always be a strong partner for the U.S.," he said. "We are close neighbors. We have been incorporated in the last 80 years and I think the future has a lot to offer, to cooperate with."
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, meanwhile, told Trump during a call last week that it will be up to Greenlanders to decide about their independence.
Monday, she said in an Instagram post that Europe will need to "navigate a new reality."
She also stressed that Denmark needs to remain allied with the United States, as it is her country's most important alliance since World War II.