NUUK, Greenland (Reuters) - Greenland will strengthen its ties with Denmark until it can become a sovereign nation, the Arctic island's incoming prime minister told Reuters on Monday, noting that the semi-autonomous Danish territory ultimately wants to become independent.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, 33, was sworn in as prime minister of Greenland on Friday and will lead a four-party coalition government amid challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump's ambitions to control the island.
"We are in the Kingdom of Denmark right now, and as long as we are in this construction, we need to build our relationship and build our partnership to get it stronger until the day we can be a sovereign nation," Nielsen said.
"We have a strong partnership with Denmark, and that's what we're going to build on until the day we can be sovereign," he added.
Meanwhile, he said Greenland wanted a partnership with the United States that was based on mutual respect.
"Greenland will never be a part of America ... We want to trade. We want a strong partnership on national security, of course, but we want it in mutual respect. We will never be for sale and we will never be Americans," Nielsen said.
Asked about a comment made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday that Denmark had not done a good job of keeping Greenland safe, Nielsen said:
"Right now we are in a phase where they are building up, and we need to find solutions together."
During a visit to a U.S. military base in northern Greenland on Friday, Vance accused Denmark - which has controlled Greenland since 1721 - of not doing a good job of keeping the island safe and suggested the United States would better protect the strategically located island.
"We don't want to be Americans. We don't either want to be Danes in the future. We want to be independent. But right now we are part of the Kingdom of Denmark and that's how it's going to be," Nielsen added.
(Reporting by Tom Little in Nuuk, writing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Sandra Maler)
