A view from Greenland: US overtures prompt hope and caution

Commentary by Nuuk resident Tim Argetsinger

U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s statement last month about America’s intention to annex Greenland has predictably caused much handwringing, soul-searching, and consternation among Greenlanders and their government in recent days.

His overtures are being taken more seriously than his 2019 offer to buy the island nation from Denmark because Trump dispatched his son, Donald Trump Jr., to visit Nuuk on January 8. The visit seemed intended to gauge the national feeling.

The national government here, in a January 8 statement, is unequivocal that Greenlanders desire an independent Greenland and do not wish to become Americans. However, the statement also tellingly welcomes cooperation and dialogue with the superpower.

The timing of Trump’s most recent overtures is shrewd given the political mood here. The island’s five national political parties may have differing ideological and philosophical approaches to governing, but they are united in their shared desire to achieve independence from Denmark.

Independence is perceived by many Greenlanders not as a lofty, far-off objective but as a foregone conclusion. A commission convened by the Government of Greenland completed work on a draft constitution in 2023.

Attitudes toward Denmark have also sharpened among Greenlanders and their government in recent years as human rights abuses perpetrated against their people by Denmark have come into focus, including the forced sterilization of Inuit women in recent decades and the distressing and ongoing overrepresentation of Greenlandic children living in Denmark who are taken into care by the Danish state.

Opportunity to use Trump as leverage to fast-track independence

Denmark exercises jurisdiction over foreign and security policy on behalf of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government of Greenland particularly resents being chaperoned by Denmark in the conduct of international diplomacy, including in fora such as the Nordic Council and Arctic Council, where Greenlandic officials participate with Denmark as junior partners.

This is why some of Greenland’s political leaders see an opportunity in Trump’s entreaties to leverage America’s interest in acquiring Greenland to fast-track its independence movement.

Recently, one of Greenland’s two members of the Danish Parliament, Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, challenged the Government of Greenland in a statement to immediately pursue statehood, though she did not identify a specific means for doing so.

She contrasts the positive feelings of liberation, openness, and integration with the global community Greenlanders supposedly experienced under American occupation during World War II with Denmark’s racist, isolationist policy that restricted freedom of movement and imposed arbitrary embargoes on the importation of specific goods into the island.

Although the question of independence is a near-constant fixture of political discourse here, very little attention is devoted to the practical ramifications of what it would entail, or even whether such a step would create positive benefits in the lives of Greenlanders in areas such as healthcare, education, and day-to-day living standards.

Exploring “free association” as a path forward

“Free association” appears to be the legal and political shortcut favored by Greenlandic officials for achieving independence because the model enables small nations to enjoy the status of a sovereign nation-state without being encumbered by the need to develop a robust economy or to immediately assume responsibility for complex areas of jurisdiction that extend beyond their capacity.

The Government of Greenland currently depends on Danish transfers to administer services under its jurisdiction and relies on the Danes to administer major areas of responsibility such as policing, defense, and border security.

Of the five freely associated nations – all small Pacific Island nations – three are associated with the U.S. through Compacts of Free Association. Two others, the Cook Islands and Niue, are freely associated with New Zealand.

The U.S. Compacts enable the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia, which were previously horse-traded between colonial powers, to enjoy the status of independent nation-states as well as recognition by the international community.

The countries receive multi-year transfers of funding, and their citizens can reside, work, and study in the U.S. The Compacts also provide for the provision of critical services by the U.S. For example, in Micronesia, the U.S. oversees weather services, aviation services, and disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery.

In return, the U.S. military has unfettered access to these island nations’ land, airspace, and waters, an arrangement that translates into significant American influence and control over their foreign policy affairs.

In June, the U.S. Marine Corps completed work on a rebuilt World War II runway in Palau, for example, which was operationalized in response to China’s activities in the region.

The U.S. became an Arctic state in 1868 after buying Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million and maneuvered in a failed bid to buy Greenland and Iceland from Denmark shortly afterward.

Inuit and other Indigenous peoples in Alaska, most of whom were barely aware of the tiny, ragtag Russian presence on the continent, were unwittingly subsumed first into the Russian Empire and then into America’s expanding orbit.

The president-elect has been clear that America’s objective is to expand its military presence in the region as a counterbalance to growing Russian and Chinese dominance. America also undoubtedly has designs on securing guaranteed market share of the untold mineral deposits, such as cobalt, titanium, and nickel, that are buried throughout the island’s towering mountains and fjords, and which are critical for powering a green future.

If Greenland and the U.S. do pursue a free association or other arrangement, the island nation risks becoming little more than a U.S. vassal state, arguably independent in name only. Without an economic or military hand to play, this small island nation could end up swapping out one set of political masters for another.

Irrespective of the pathway Greenlanders choose to determine their own future, they and their leaders alone will have to closely assess the political and economic drawbacks and benefits of becoming an independent state, either of their own volition or in cooperation with the U.S. or some other partner.

Tim Aqukkasuk Argetsinger is Iñupiaq from Anchorage, Alaska, with roots in Kotzebue and Deering. He has lived with his family in Nuuk, Greenland, since 2019.