US President Donald Trump has said he believes the US will gain control of Greenland.

“I think we’re going to get it,” he told reporters on Saturday aboard Air Force One, according to the BBC, adding that the island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us.”

His comments come after reports that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen insisted Greenland was “not for sale” in a phone call with the president last week.

Trump floated the prospect of buying the vast Arctic region during his first term in office in 2019 and said US control of Greenland was an “absolute necessity” for international security.

“I think people want to be with us,” Trump said when asked. “I think we’re going to take Greenland because it’s about the freedom of the world,” Trump continued, adding, “It has nothing to do with the United States except that we’re the ones who can provide the freedom. They can’t.”

The Prime Ministers of Greenland and Denmark have previously stated that the island is not for sale.

“Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egende said the day after Trump’s related post.

“We are not for sale, and we never will be. We must not give up our long struggle for freedom,” Egende had written on Facebook, adding: “However, we must remain open to cooperation and international trade, and especially with our neighbors.”

Denmark agreed to discuss Greenland with the US

Denmark agreed on Friday to discuss the Arctic region with Washington, Foreign Minister Lars Loke Rasmussen said, after the first phone call with the top diplomat in President Donald Trump’s administration, who wants control of Greenland.

Rasmussen and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a 20-minute conversation in a “good and constructive tone”, discussing Ukraine, European security and the situation in the Middle East, Denmark’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The State Department said late Friday that Rubio “reaffirmed the strength of the relationship” between the two countries in the call.

Trump has expressed interest in making Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, part of the United States. He has not ruled out using military or economic force to persuade Denmark to hand it over.

Greenland’s strategic location along the shortest route from Europe to North America, vital to the US ballistic missile warning system, has made it a priority for Trump.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on January 15 said she spoke to Trump on the phone and told him it was up to Greenland itself to decide on any independence.

The Financial Times reported on Friday that last week’s call between Frederiksen and Trump was “heated”, with Trump insisting he was serious about his determination to take over Greenland. The newspaper cites European officials. Trump took office on January 20.

“Arctic security was not on the agenda, but it was agreed to be discussed between the United States, Denmark and Greenland at a later date,” the Danish ministry said on Friday.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, who has stepped up efforts for independence, has repeatedly said the island is not for sale and that it is up to its residents to decide their future.

While Trump had raised the possibility of taking over Greenland in 2019 during his first term in the White House, his refusal to rule out the use of military or economic force has surprised many Danes.