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Most Greenlanders don’t want to be American: poll

The poll surveyed 497 of Greenland’s 57,000 residents between January 22 and 26, and 85 per cent of respondents said no to joining the US

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Nuuk, capital of Greenland. Officials in Greenland, which depends heavily on Denmark for subsidies, have long been pushing for independence but have said they are open to doing business with the United States. Photo: Xinhua
The vast majority of Greenland residents do not want their island to become part of the United States as envisaged by President Donald Trump, according to a poll published Wednesday.
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Trump, who returned to the White House in late January, has signalled that he wants the Arctic island – which is believed to hold large untapped mineral and oil reserves – to become part of the United States and has suggested the possible use of force or tariffs to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

When asked if they wanted to become part of the United States, 85 per cent of Greenlanders said no, according to the poll published in the Danish Berlingske and Greenland’s Sermitsiaq dailies.

Six per cent of those polled said they were in favour and nine per cent were undecided, according to the poll conducted by the Verian agency.

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“It’s the first poll that asked a representative section of Greenland’s population and I think this is very important,” Kasper Moller Hansen, a political-science professor at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.

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