Greenland, Denmark and Trump – It’s More Complicated Than You Might Think
Saying 'no' to Washington, doesn't mean saying 'yes' to Copenhagen, Danish international policy researcher Sofie Pulz tells Adrian Goldberg in the latest Byline Podcast
Greenland is firmly resisting Donald Trump’s threatened annexation by the US, with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen dismissing the plans as “fantasies” – but behind that defiance lies a complicated and sometimes troubled relationship with its ‘protector’ Denmark, the nation state to which it belongs.
International policy researcher Sofie Pultz – a Dane living in the UK – says that while Greenlanders certainly don’t want to be ruled from the White House, most of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants ultimately wish to be free from Copenhagen as well.
Pultz said: “We saw an election in early spring last year where all the parties ran on independence. Where they differed was in how and when that will come about – and maybe surprisingly for the Government at the time, the party that was elected was one of the more hesitant parties on the independence question, and a party that has a stronger relationship with Copenhagen.”
Even so, polling suggested last year that 56% of the population would vote for an independent Greenland if given the chance. The strained relationship between the Nordic neighbours is exemplified by a forced sterilisation scandal which saw women and girls from the Inuit community – which makes up around 88% of Greenland’s population – being fitted with intrauterine devices without their informed consent by Danish doctors between 1965 and 1991.
As a result, the Inuit birthrate halved. Although Denmark’s current Prime Minister Metter Frederiksen recently apologised for the outrage, Polz says that too often her compatriots are motivated by an arrogant desire to ‘civilise’ the Inuit.
”Greenlanders have this real frustration and sometimes hatred towards Denmark. They’re very angry about being sidelined and by not being taken seriously, not having had a seat at the table when discussing policies affecting Greenland.
“They have felt that they have been treated as secondary people in their own country. And they are a very proud people – very proud of their history, their culture, their language. So there is this very understandable strong desire for independence amongst Greenlanders.”
At the same time, few in Greenland are calling for an immediate breakaway. This is partly due to the generous subsidies and welfare benefits they receive from Denmark which account for around 60% of the national budget – and now because they are threatened by Trump.
A recent survey showed that however strained their relationship with the Danes, Greenlanders are even more hostile to the US, with 85% of respondents saying they don’t want to become the 51st state.
Pultz says that despite Trump’s claim that the territory is vital to US national security, the US can already protect itself without hindrance.
“In 1951 we set up a defence agreement with the US saying that, essentially, you can have as many military bases as you want. You can have as many people on Greenland as you want and they can have free mobility.”
She says the US once had 17 military bases with around 10,000 personnel, but has unilaterally cut back to just one base, with just 200 people.
While the potential for Russian and Chinese encroachment on North America through the Arctic certainly some weight, Pultz believes that Trump is also eyeing the oil and rare earth minerals lying underneath what is the world’s second largest ice sheet.
The advantage of ‘owning’ the land would be that the US wouldn’t need to negotiate bothersome Danish bureaucracy and environmental concerns.
She says: “If the US can get access to those critical minerals and set up their own processing and refining capacities through Greenland, they will be less dependent on China, and that’s a real goal for the Trump administration”
Listen to the full interview with Sofie Pultz here, on the Byline Podcast.
Great to hear Bylines taking some interest in indigenous issues.
Indigenous Greenland women suffer from many of the same issues as US indigenous people: missing & murdered, sterilised without consent.
Danish government still uses the social issues created by imperialist demands for compliance with "modern" values (alcohol/drug abuse, mental health issues) to allow children to be removed from families & placed in "good" Danish-speaking families, or sent off to residential schools where their own languages are either stigmatised or penalised.
Cultural genocide, still being practised in the 21st century, by a European member country.
The debate about independence & the presence of valuable minerals has to be used as a weapon to give the indigenous population proper control of their lives, not yet another reason to impose settler rules & continue the extractive economy.
Reminds me of the high-handed, simultaneously patronising and contemptuous attitude of UK Westminster Governments to the constituent nations of the UK. And that there will soon be majorities in each wanting independence.