Donald Trump’s icebreaker leaves Greenland and Denmark adrift

When Donald Trump first offered to buy Greenland in 2019, Danish politicians dismissed him and his offer as a joke.

This time, after the US-president-elect renewed his interest in controlling the geopolitically important Arctic island, the government in Copenhagen has been more cautious.

Trump’s off-the-cuff policymaking has a way of moving even the closest of allies, especially when his moves verge on trolling. His son Donald Jr. made a “personal visit” on Tuesday GreenlandThe vast island of only 56,000 people has to appreciate the snowy beauty.

The president-elect’s latest proposal puts politicians in Copenhagen and Greenland’s capital Nuuk in a major bind. How can they respond to what their main security guarantor, the United States, increasingly looks like a serious game as it tussles with Russia and China for influence in the Arctic?

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called Trump’s proposal “absurd” in 2019. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, now Denmark’s foreign minister, said that “this must be an April Fool’s Day joke”. Trump immediately canceled a state visit to the Nordic country.

Their tone on Tuesday was different. Frederiksen emphasized that Greenland, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, “Not for saleBut he also emphasized that Denmark wants to cooperate with the United States. “We have a clear interest that the United States plays a big role in that region, and not, for example, Russia,” said Frederiksen, who is responsible for Greenland’s foreign and security policy.

That awkward attempt to avoid objections Trump Even before he began his second term he was not universally popular in Copenhagen. Pele Dragstedt, political spokesman for the far-left Enheadslisten, sharply criticized Frederiksen for failing to call out Trump’s “disrespectful and dangerously neo-colonial” language.

“Our prime minister’s answer is clearly that Trump can do whatever he wants about Greenland and Denmark,” he added.

Trump felt it himself, saying at a news conference on Tuesday that he could not rule out military coercion or tariffs against NATO ally Denmark if he did not get his way in Greenland.

Trump’s comments Touch a nerve Denmark precisely because Copenhagen has long underestimated and even mistreated Greenland. Experts say Denmark has been slow to realize the geopolitical significance of Greenland, perhaps the most important Arctic landmass and a potentially large future source of minerals as the ice melts.

Recent revelations about the mass sterilization of indigenous Greenlandic women in the 1960s have hurt relations with Denmark and fueled rhetoric about trying to break free from “colonial-era shackles,” as Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede recently put it.

Frederiksen himself acknowledged on Tuesday that Greenland is moving towards independence, even if he wants to keep the kingdom of Denmark – which includes the autonomous Faroe Islands – together.

But Trump’s proposal is not straightforward for Greenland, and makes different demands balancing act From politicians in Nuuk.

Egede consistently underscored that Greenland “will never be sold”. There is no desire to swap one colonial power for another on the island. But the prime minister and other Greenlandic politicians insist the island is open for business and keen to attract foreign, particularly US, investment.

Egede is also keen on independence from Copenhagen, using his New Year’s speech to raise his rhetoric on the issue ahead of elections in April. The biggest obstacle to this is Greenland’s economic dependence on Denmark, and its annual economic subsidy of DKr3.9bn ($540mn) – about $10,000 per Greenlander.

For all the focus on the oil and mineral resources that could be unlocked by climate change in Greenland, existing projects have made relatively little progress over the past decade. A Greenlandic business man once put it this way: “Potential is there, but it always seems to be around the corner.”

Opposition politicians have accused Egede of doing little to promote independence during his time in office, and some worry that Trump’s proposal could overshadow other issues in the upcoming election.

All of this is likely to favor the US president-elect as he balances various transactional intrigues with traditional allies from Europe to Canada. Greenland and Denmark will be busy speculating what might be enough to buy off Trump.

But Egede, speaking on Tuesday, sought to underline that the future of one of the world’s most strategically important landmasses rests solely with Greenland’s 56,000 people.

“The fight for our future and freedom is our business. While others, including Danes and Americans, are entitled to their opinions, we should not get caught up in the hysteria and external pressures that distract us from our path. The future is ours, and ours to shape,” he said said.