Copenhagen, Denmark – To Donald Trump, the US president who presents himself as an adept dealmaker, Greenland seems to be an irresistible alternative.
He has lengthy mentioned he needs to purchase the huge, semi-autonomous icy island that’s a part of Denmark, wealthy in untapped mineral sources and residential to about 56,000 individuals.
In 2019, throughout his first time period as president, Trump recommended that the US can buy Greenland, framing it as an actual property deal.
In 2025, president as soon as once more, Trump has mentioned he’s involved about nationwide and financial safety, believing that that China and Russia pose a risk. Each nations have stepped up their army actions within the Arctic.
Trump has additionally questioned whether or not Denmark has rights to Greenland, and said that if that is so, Copenhagen ought to give it as much as the US.
“I feel Greenland we’ll get as a result of it has to do with freedom of the world,” he advised reporters on board Air Drive One final month.
He has refused to rule out a army assault if his calls for aren’t met, a risk that has opened a brand new chapter of tensions with Europe.
In 2019, the proposal was rejected.
Kim Kielsen, then-chairman of the Naalakkersuisut, Greenland’s authorities, mentioned the territory was not up on the market.
The Greenlandic and Danish governments now discover themselves once more underlining the identical message.
The present chairman of Greenland’s authorities, Mute B Egede, has underscored aspirations of independence and confirmed an curiosity in cooperation with different powers – together with Denmark, the European Union and the US.
Al Jazeera interviewed Birger Poppel, a social scientist and emeritus professor on the Ilisimatusarfik – the College of Greenland, concerning the rising tensions, Donald Trump Jr’s latest go to to Greenland, the newest opinion polls within the territory, the connection with Denmark and the rising local weather challenges within the Arctic because of elevated transport visitors.
Al Jazeera: Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland in Donald Trump’s non-public jet to promote an concept – that being purchased by the US would enhance Greenland’s fortunes. In line with native reviews, some Greenlanders had been coerced into saying on movie that they lack every little thing and love the US. Do Greenlanders love the US?
Birger Poppel: Promoting the concept very precisely summarises the aim of Trump Jr’s half-day go to to Nuuk.
Trump’s vanguard arrived the day earlier than, the place they handed out MAGA hats to individuals they met, who then agreed to be in Nuuk airport when Junior and his PR staff arrived.
Upon arrival, Junior was greeted by a neighborhood Trump supporter who had participated in Trump’s election marketing campaign as an activist, along with a couple of handfuls of locals sporting MAGA hats and a bunch of curious Nuuk residents.
One of many occasions was a lunch at a neighborhood luxurious restaurant, the place locals – and primarily socially deprived and resource-poor individuals – received a free meal.
Junior’s go to was a serious PR stunt. He claimed he was on a vacationer go to, however he and the group got here with primarily political messages – based mostly on faux information and manipulated info. This additionally applies to his assertion about Greenlanders’ views on the US.
4 out of the 5 events in [Greenland’s Parliament] Inatsisartut – together with each authorities events – have Greenlandic independence as a part of their political programmes. Nearly all of the Greenlandic inhabitants needs independence inside 10-20 years, and on the situation that the usual of residing might be maintained.
A just lately revealed opinion ballot exhibits that 85 p.c of Greenlanders don’t want Greenland to go away the Danish Realm and as an alternative turn out to be a part of the US.
If the Greenlandic inhabitants got the selection between being Danish or Americans, 55 p.c would select Danish citizenship, whereas 8 p.c would select American citizenship.
Al Jazeera: How ought to Trump’s view that Greenland is linked to US nationwide and financial safety be assessed? Do China and Russia pose threats?
Poppel: If one takes Trump’s phrases at face worth, the risk might hardly be stronger. It also needs to be famous that Trump has made a risk in opposition to one of many US’s most loyal NATO companions.
This is only one instance of Trump’s failure to simply accept or respect a rules-based worldwide social order the place nationwide borders are recognised. Thus, Trump’s assertion additionally contributes to legitimising, for instance, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine.
The US has alternatives to attain its geostrategic targets in Greenland with a base in north Greenland and a defence settlement with Denmark.
If “financial safety” means entry to uncooked materials extraction of, for instance, uncommon earth components (REE), the Greenlandic self-government has invited the US and American corporations to use for exploration and growth licences in Greenland.
Just one American firm has a licence.
So, there could also be causes for Trump’s statements – both it’s due to inadequate perception into the precise situations, or the need to personal Greenland is to attraction to core voters to level out that “Make America Nice Once more” should even be understood territorially, as is the case with the Panama Canal.
Al Jazeera: The Arctic was often seen as frozen and distant not solely geographically, but additionally politically. What’s altering?
Poppel: World warming means, amongst different issues, that the ice cowl within the Arctic Ocean is reducing in each extent and thickness. This has meant a rise of transport visitors, not least by way of the Northeast Passage.
Elevated transport visitors may even imply elevated visitors from China and Russia, with Trump apparently fearing that a part of this visitors will include naval vessels from Russia and China.
In latest many years, Russia has – consistent with the elevated accessibility of the Russian Arctic coast – modernised and upgraded the army services alongside the coast and has additionally modernised the Russian navy with icebreakers.
In an interview, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the US’s elevated safety wants within the Arctic, since China might want port services in Greenland. Rubio noticed this as an argument for Trump’s need for the US to own Greenland.
The 5 Arctic nations – Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Norway, and Russia, the US – that border the Arctic Ocean, within the so-called Ilulissat Declaration from 2008, dedicated to resolving conflicts within the area by peaceable means. Ten years later – in 2018, the 5 Arctic coastal states confirmed the Ilulissat Declaration, thereby sustaining the Arctic as a low-tension space.
There isn’t a doubt that each Russia and China have a rising curiosity within the Arctic. Russia, whose lengthy shoreline borders half of the Arctic Ocean, has modernised Arctic army installations, and China has an curiosity within the oil and gasoline from the Russian a part of the Arctic and in future use of future Arctic sea lanes with decrease transportation prices.
Al Jazeera: Europe was shocked by Trump’s promise to take Greenland over by any means mandatory. The Danish authorities has launched plans to spice up safety in Greenland. How do you view Denmark’s response?
Poppel: The Greenlandic authorities and Greenlandic members of the Danish Parliament have identified the necessity of an elevated precedence for monitoring the Greenlandic territory and the waters off the coast of Greenland for years.
In 2019, the Danish authorities determined to extend monitoring of Greenland and allotted funds for this, however up to now 4 years, regardless of Greenlandic political stress on the Danish authorities, nothing has been accomplished to enhance monitoring.
The US has the choice – by settlement with Greenland and Denmark – to ascertain extra bases however has not taken benefit of the person choice.
Al Jazeera: What are you able to inform us concerning the US’s base in Greenland?
Poppel: The US established Thule Air Base in 1953 after the world’s unique inhabitants, the Inughuit, had been forcibly relocated by the Danish state to make room for the bottom.
The bottom, now known as Pituffik House Base, has early warning methods, the potential for house surveillance and the command of satellites. The civilian a part of the bottom has, at instances, offered employment for each Greenlandic and Danish employees.
Al Jazeera: Are you involved concerning the local weather in the long run?
Poppel: Elevated US manufacturing of fossil fuels will imply elevated CO2 emissions and result in rising temperatures and, thus, elevated melting of all sorts of ice.
Trump goals of with the ability to export extra oil and gasoline, and the elevated transport visitors will additional contribute to the local weather affect.
Marco Rubio’s statements that the transportation of fossil fuels to a big extent ought to happen from the north and alongside the west coast of Greenland may even imply the chance of environmental disasters within the weak Arctic marine setting and can, in any case, have an effect on wildlife – not least marine mammals, that are very delicate to noise.
