Copenhagen (AFP) – After weathering Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take control of Greenland, Copenhagen and Nuuk want to restore a bit of calm ahead of the Danish general election this month, observers say. “The tensions were very high in January with arguments flying… There needed to be some kind of de-escalation,” Astrid Andersen, a historian at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), told AFP.
The war of words over the territory, which Trump has said that the United States needs for its “national security,” has eased somewhat. Denmark and Greenland hope that a NATO mission to bump up defence cooperation to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic, as well as a diplomatic working group involving Washington, Nuuk, and Copenhagen, might take some of the sting out of the issue. “The meetings on a diplomatic level take the temperature a notch down. And so the strategy now seems to be to keep it there and try to avoid arguing through the media and social media,” Andersen said.
Yet US interest in the vast Arctic territory has not waned, and the red line on the Greenlandic — and Danish — side remains the same: any transfer of sovereignty is off the table. President Trump’s recent proposal to send a US hospital ship to Greenland to help make up for shortcomings in the local health system was met with a firm rejection, but did not seem to deteriorate the situation. “The Danish government will do everything it can to keep things calm,” polar geopolitics researcher Mikaa Mered said.
Denmark goes to the polls on March 24, with Greenlanders electing two MPs to the Danish parliament. The Arctic island, a Danish colony for three centuries, still has a complicated relationship with Copenhagen, which now rules it as an autonomous territory. While disagreeing on how to get there, Greenland’s main political parties all want independence, but in the face of pressure from Trump, Greenland and Denmark have presented a united front. “This is the first time there has been such close cooperation between Copenhagen and Nuuk,” said Julie Rademacher, chair of the National Organisation for Greenlanders in Denmark. “We have to start our reconciliation process today,” Rademacher said, even if she conceded there was a risk that scars from the past would be exploited by the Trump administration.
Greenlandic politician Aqqaluk Lynge, founder of the Greenlandic left-wing party Inuit Ataqatigiit, believes that Copenhagen and Nuuk need to exercise caution. “We have to be very careful about everything,” he said. The former minister advocates stronger ties with Copenhagen, fearing that Trump will co-opt Greenland’s dreams of independence. “He will use everything,” he said. “We must make sure these elections are not influenced by the United States.”
In Nuuk, civil society is treading carefully, afraid that their words will be appropriated by Washington. This has led to some sensitive issues being put to the side — at least temporarily. One of the most contentious is the campaign of forced contraception imposed on young Greenlandic women by Danish authorities from the late 1960s to 1991. Denmark issued a formal apology in the summer of 2025 and promised compensation to the victims. A report examining the legal implications of the human rights violations — especially whether they can be classified as genocide — was submitted to the Greenlandic government in early February but has not yet been made public.
“If the conclusion points to genocide, then it’s bound to create some new waves,” Andersen said. “The governments will have to deal with that, and the Trump administration will most likely try to use that too,” she added. A highly choreographed Greenland visit last month by Denmark’s King Frederik X helped project the image of a united Kingdom of Denmark, which consists of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. “Part of his visit was of course also meant to create nice counter-images to the US… Images of the king being welcomed in Greenland that are meant to demonstrate that the relations with Denmark are strong and positive,” Andersen said.
© 2024 AFP
