Christian Ulloriaq Jeppesen remembers how this all began.
In 2019, throughout Donald J. Trump’s first time period as president, Mr. Trump floated the thought of america shopping for the island of Greenland. On the time, most individuals in Greenland (and Denmark, the European nation that controls it) thought his suggestion was a joke.
“Everybody mentioned, ‘Ha-ha, you may’t simply purchase a rustic, he doesn’t imply it,’” Mr. Jeppesen, a local Greenlander and a radio producer, mentioned by phone. “Clearly that was the fallacious solution to take it. Have a look at the place we’re right now.”
Now Mr. Trump has doubled down on his insistence that america must annex Greenland for safety causes. And that has Greenlanders asking the identical questions as everybody else, however with much more urgency.
Is Mr. Trump simply being bombastic once more, floating a fantastic annexation plan that he might know is a stretch?
Or is he severe?
Based mostly on his feedback in the previous couple of weeks, Mr. Trump seems fully severe. By no means thoughts that Denmark’s management has mentioned the territory isn’t on the market, and its future have to be decided by the native inhabitants.
“For functions of nationwide safety and freedom all through the World, america of America feels that the possession and management of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Mr. Trump wrote in late December in a social media post saying his selection for ambassador to Denmark.
At a information convention on Tuesday, the president-elect took an even more surprising swerve. He refused to rule out utilizing navy power to get Greenland. And that very same day Donald Trump, Jr., all of a sudden confirmed up on the island.
The president-elect’s son landed Tuesday afternoon in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, toured some sights like a statue of an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian missionary and was hosted by a Danish Trump supporter. He mentioned the rationale for the journey was private, not official, however the president-elect posted about his son and “various representatives” visiting and mentioned “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN.”
“That is all getting scary,” Mr. Jeppesen mentioned.
At 836,000 sq. miles, Greenland is the world’s largest island, a few fourth the dimensions of america. It elects two representatives to Denmark’s Parliament and 31 to its personal, which is accountable for most features of the island’s authorities, although Denmark retains management in just a few coverage areas, together with protection and components of worldwide affairs.
Its location and panorama make it fascinating to Mr. Trump on a number of ranges.
It’s strategically positioned on the prime of the world, east of Canada alongside the Arctic Sea, and residential to a big American navy base. It’s loaded with mineral resources akin to cobalt, copper and nickel.
And as local weather change melts the ice, it’s opening up new paths by way of the Arctic Sea, which is changing into a fiercely contested area for delivery, vitality and different pure assets, in addition to navy maneuvering.
Greenland may additionally discover itself in the course of a cross-Atlantic showdown over its sovereignty. On Wednesday, the French overseas minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, mentioned that Europe couldn’t enable a nation to attack its sovereign borders — whereas including that he didn’t count on america to invade Greenland.
The blast of consideration falls on Greenland at a sensitive time, with the native independence motion rising. Many Greenlanders really feel more and more resentful towards Denmark, which has performed an overseer position for many years. For its measurement, Greenland has a tiny inhabitants and many of the 56,000 Greenlanders are Inuit, a part of a bunch of peoples who additionally dwell in Canada and Alaska.
The Greenlandic language is totally totally different from Danish. Many individuals observe a tradition and perception system fairly other than these in Western Europe. And, like Indigenous folks in america and elsewhere, they’ve been oppressed for a very long time.
The Greenlanders’ disaffection with Denmark was heightened two years in the past with revelations about Danish docs becoming hundreds of Indigenous girls and ladies with intrauterine contraceptive gadgets within the Sixties and Seventies, often without their knowledge.
Danish officers have repeatedly mentioned that Greenland isn’t on the market, although they’ve emphasised their want for heat relations with america. Final month, Denmark’s king jumped into the fray by abruptly altering the nation’s coat of arms to extra prominently characteristic symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands (one other territory beneath Denmark’s management) — a polar bear and a sheep.
Amid this debate over id, many individuals are actually puzzling over Mr. Trump’s intentions.
“Is it only a distraction?” requested Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher on the Danish Institute for Worldwide Research. “Or is it threat-based diplomacy?”
Based on an agreement in 2009 that granted Greenland expanded self-rule, Greenlanders have the correct to carry a referendum on independence. The rationale it has occurred but, analysts say, is as a result of Greenland continues to be closely depending on Denmark for a lot of skilled providers — together with docs, nurses and lecturers — in addition to half a billion {dollars} a 12 months in subsidies.
Aaja Chemnitz, one of many two representatives from Greenland within the Danish Parliament, mentioned she worries that Mr. Trump is making an attempt to pump up Greenland’s independence motion to additional his personal pursuits. In that case, she mentioned, “We danger changing into a pawn in a recreation between Denmark and the US.”
Greenland advantages from the Danish welfare system, she mentioned, and it could do so much worse if it grew to become a part of america.
“I’ve seen the American system,” Ms. Chemnitz, who lived in New York whereas working for the United Nations, mentioned in a phone interview. “I understand how dangerous it may be for equality.”
Mr. Jeppesen, the radio producer, mentioned Mr. Trump might also be misinterpreting the impartial nature of Greenlanders. Greenland isn’t just a bit of land. It’s a nation, a narrative, a homeland.
“There may be this monumental delight you get from being one in every of simply 56,000,” Mr. Jeppesen mentioned. “Greenland is superb, it’s stunning, it’s probably the most great nation on this planet.”
“And it’s a nation combating for independence,” he added. “Not a bit of property you should purchase.”
