Trump’s threat to seize Greenland baffles islanders

Christian Oluriak Jeppesen remembers how it all started.

In 2019, during Donald J. Trump’s first term as president, Mr. Trump floated the idea of ​​the United States purchasing Greenland. At the time, most people in Greenland (and Denmark, the European country that controls it) thought his proposal was a joke.

“Everyone said, ‘Ha ha, you can’t just buy a country,’ he didn’t mean it,” Jeppesen, a Greenlandic and radio producer, said by phone. “This was clearly the wrong way to handle it. Look where we are today.”

Now, Trump has doubled down on his insistence that the United States needs to annex Greenland for security reasons. This has Greenlanders asking the same questions as everyone else, but with greater discomfort.

Will Mr. Trump go back to his rhetoric again and put forward a fantasy annexation plan that he may know is exaggerated?

Or is he serious?

And based on his comments in the past few weeks, Mr. Trump seems quite serious. Not to mention that the Danish leadership said that the area is not for sale, and that its future should be determined by the local population.

“For purposes of national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote in late December in a text message. Social media sharing Announcing his selection as ambassador to Denmark.

At a news conference on Tuesday, the president-elect equalized An even more surprising deviation: He refused to rule out the use of military force to obtain Greenland.

France and Germany take Mr. Trump seriously enough Data issued On Wednesday, Trump defended Greenland’s territorial integrity and warned against the threat of any military action.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, “regardless of whether it is a very small or very powerful country.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said it was “clearly out of the question” to threaten “the sovereign borders of another country.”

“Do I think the United States will invade Greenland? The answer is no, Mr. Barrow He told France Inter radio. Have we entered an era in which the rule of the strongest returns? The answer is yes.”

Another sign of Mr. Trump’s interest in Greenland came on Tuesday when his son, Donald Trump Jr., suddenly appeared on the island.

The president-elect’s son arrived in the afternoon in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and toured some sights, including a statue of an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian missionary, and was hosted by a Danish Trump supporter. He said that the reason for the trip was personal, not official, but rather the president-elect Posted about his son and “various actors” Visit and said “Make Greenland great again.”

“This is all getting scary,” Mr. Jepsen said.

At 836,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world, about a quarter the size of the United States. It is an autonomous region of Denmark that elects two representatives to the Danish Parliament and 31 of its own, who is responsible for most aspects of the island’s government. However, Denmark retains control over defence, security and international affairs elements.

Its location and landscape make it attractive to Mr. Trump on several levels.

Greenland is strategically located at the top of the world, east of Canada along the Arctic Sea, and is home to a large US military base. that it Loaded with mineral resources Such as cobalt, copper and nickel.

As climate change melts the ice, it opens new paths through the Arctic, which has become a hotly contested area for shipping, energy and other natural resources, as well as military maneuvers.

The explosion of interest comes at a sensitive time for Greenland. More Greenlanders are demanding independence, and many feel growing resentment towards Denmark, which has played a supervisory role for decades. Greenland’s population is very small for its size, and most of Greenland’s 56,000 people are Inuit, part of a group of peoples that also live in Canada and Alaska.

The Greenlandic language is very different from the Danish language. Many people follow a cultural and belief system very different from those in Western Europe. Like indigenous people in the United States and elsewhere, they have been treated unequally for a long time.

Greenlanders’ discontent with Denmark boiled over two years ago after revelations that Danish doctors had provided thousands of indigenous women and girls with intrauterine contraception in the 1960s and 1970s, which Without their knowledge.

Danish officials have repeatedly said that Greenland is not for sale, although they have stressed their desire to establish warm relations with the United States and indicated their openness to dialogue. Last month, the King of Denmark jumped into the fray by abruptly changing the country’s coat of arms to more prominently feature the symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands (another territory controlled by Denmark) – a polar bear and a sheep.

Amid this identity debate, many people are now confused about Mr. Trump’s intentions.

“Is it just a distraction?” asked Ulrik Bram Gadd, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “Or is it threat-based diplomacy?”

Aviaja Sandgren, a nurse who lives in the small town of Qaqortoq (all Greenlandic towns are small), doesn’t want to be part of the United States.

“We will lose a lot of benefits,” she said when we reached her by phone on Wednesday. “We have free education, educational scholarships, free health care, and free medicine. “Everything is free here in Greenland.”

“I know they don’t have that in the United States,” she said.

Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony from the 18th century until the mid-20th century and severely suppressed indigenous culture. During World War II, the United States established bases in Greenland to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis after Germany occupied Denmark, and when the war ended, it offered to buy the island from Denmark, which refused.

Greenland was incorporated into Denmark in 1953, with the Danes helping to reform its economic, transportation, and education systems. In 1979 Greenland gained limited autonomy over internal affairs and established its own parliament.

Thirty years later, Denmark extended autonomy to Greenland and below dealGreenlanders have the right to hold a referendum on independence. Analysts say the reason this has not happened yet is that Greenland still relies heavily on Denmark for many professional services – including doctors, nurses and teachers – as well as half a billion dollars a year in subsidies.

Aja Chemnitz, one of the two Greenlandic representatives in the Danish parliament, said she was concerned that Trump might try to promote the Greenlandic independence movement to advance his own interests. “We risk becoming a pawn in a game between Denmark and the United States,” she said.

Greenland benefits from the Danish welfare system, and the situation would be much worse if it became part of the United States, she said.

“I saw the American system,” Chemnitz, who lived in New York while working for the United Nations, said in a phone interview. “I know how damaging this would be to equality.”

Mr. Jepsen, the radio producer, said Mr. Trump may be misinterpreting the independent nature of Greenlanders. Greenland is not just a large piece of land. It is a nation, a story, a homeland.

“There’s this tremendous pride you feel when you’re one of only 56,000 people,” Jepsen said. “Greenland is amazing, it’s beautiful, it’s the most amazing country in the world.”

He added: “It is a country struggling for independence.” “It’s not a piece of property you can buy.”

Stephen Erlanger Aurelien Bredin in Paris and Chris Schuetz in Berlin contributed reporting from Berlin.