Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen
Greenland's prime minister has said his people would choose Denmark over the US if they were asked to make such a choice "here and now".
Jens-Frederik Nielsen's remark at a joint news conference with Denmark's prime minister is the strongest by a representative of the semi-autonomous Danish territory since US President Donald Trump renewed his plan to annex it.
Trump says the US needs to "own" Greenland to defend against Russia and China. The White House has suggested buying the island, but not ruled out the use of force to annex it.
Denmark is a fellow NATO member and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that military force would spell the end of the trans-Atlantic defence alliance.
Asked later on Tuesday what he made of Nielsen's comments, Trump said: "That's their problem, I disagree with him... That's going to be a big problem for him."
Despite being the most sparsely populated territory, Greenland's location between North America and the Arctic makes it well placed for early warning systems in the event of missile attacks, and for monitoring vessels in the region.
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