From neighbors to partners. Why Canada and Greenland need to come together: Commentary
From the campaign trail to his address to Congress, US President Donald Trump has been adamant about the need to purchase Greenland, effectively making it an American territory, for national security reasons.
Despite the US already having a military base on Greenland’s northwest coast as well as possessing the ability to influence and potentially control Greenland’s territory in dire national security situations due to the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement, Trump’s obsession with the Arctic island seems to have emerged because of the untapped wealth of critical minerals and rare earths, resources Trump desperately needs to make America a self-sufficient power in areas critical for military, industrial, and technological superiority.
Very similarly, Canada is encountering a similar position by President Trump. Notwithstanding the close alliance between Ottawa and Washington, which has existed for 80 years, or the integrated efforts to make a lasting and strong continental economy, Trump has been extremely vocal about his desire to “make Canada the 51st State.”
With these remarks becoming more frequent and literal early on in Trump’s second presidential term, Canada and Greenland must take action to protect their sovereignty and autonomy by forming a genuine and mutual partnership. In particular, this partnership must underpin Canada’s economic, military, and diplomatic strengths to assist Greenland attain its Arctic Strategy vision of cultivating a self-sustaining economy, a balanced military, surveillance, and civilian capabilities, and a desire to be a part of international discussions, especially when the Arctic is on the agenda.
While Canada must extend the defence guarantees enshrined in NATO’s Article V to Greenland, Ottawa should also go beyond traditional defence commitments by signing an agreement with Nuuk that allows the Arctic Canadian Rangers Patrol Groups – Army Reserve personnel who come from Indigenous communities and work in the Canadian north – to train Greenlanders to prompt up their civil preparedness. By providing Indigenous-led training programs on reporting suspicious and unusual activities, collecting local data, and environmental and emergency responses, Canada can provide Greenlandic decision-makers better opportunities to participate in real-time security and defence operations to improve civilian-military collaboration for sovereignty operations.
The agreement could also extend to those wanting training in maritime safety operations like patrolling, inspecting, and boarding fishing and pleasuring boats to ice-breaking, ship-escorting, and environmental hazard responses. Through this agreement, Canada could benefit by having qualified Greenlandic civilians co-man Canadian Coast Guard vessels that conduct maritime operations through the Northwest Passage and the shared 3,000 km maritime border to uphold Canadian and Greenlandic territorial integrity and maritime security – demonstrating a united front in protecting their sovereignty.
On trade, Ottawa should immediately begin a bilateral effort to sign a free trade agreement between Greenland and Canada – specifically involving the Canadian territories – to reduce market barriers to Indigenous-harvested, fishing, and produced goods. Not only would this fulfill Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy pillar on market access, it would also increase the viability for Greenland to begin setting up a sustainable economic network by having access to markets and providing services to neighbouring partners.
On Greenland’s coveted critical minerals and rare earths, Canada should lend a helping hand to Nuuk by launching a mining research program. This program would see Canadian and Greenlandic universities, mining and resource institutes, and mining companies working together to conduct geological surveys to identify, collect, and analyze data on underdeveloped deposits – a vital first step in the drawn-out undertaking of mining extraction and processing.
In return, Ottawa should ask Greenland to join a High-Level Trade and Foreign Policy Dialogue with Canada. By having a 2+2 dialogue, Canadian and Greenlandic ministers for foreign affairs and trade can come together to discuss more comprehensive ways to boost trade, generate better profits, generate jobs, and sustain economic growth through more partnerships on food and fishing products, critical minerals and rare earths mining and processing in the Arctic and in future North American trading endeavours that could have farther reaching implications for accessing markets in Europe and East Asia.
Having already pledged to open a consulate in Greenland, Ottawa should initiate more subnational diplomacy initiatives with Nuuk by immediately ratifying and assisting the rolling out of the Arctic North American Forum. As stressed in Greenland’s Arctic Strategy, the forum would observe subnational diplomacy between the governments and elected politicians of Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Greenland in discussing challenges, developments, and solutions to Arctic problems and opportunities as a way to strengthen North-to-North corporation and ties between the peoples of the Arctic.
Beyond these vital activities, the forum could also decrease the Arctic’s North-South divide. Whereas many Arctic subnational governments and civilians live and work in the region, many of their country’s capitals, where most of the federal legislation, strategies, and policies are developed, do not – Ottawa and Washington being prime examples. This geographical paradox often leads southern capitals to undervalue and under-develop their Arctic region along with miscalculating ways to assist local governments and peoples.
By having more subnational diplomacy available, decision-makers and policy-makers will have better data, testimonies, and support from Arctic communities to generate more comprehensive intelligence, knowledge, and expertise for economic, defence, and infrastructure initiatives.
Although more can be accomplished in a Canada-Greenland partnership – having not touched upon intelligence-sharing, connectivity, energy security, and cooperation in education, arts and culture, and environmental affairs – getting started on these three areas will offer Canada and Greenland the ability to advance and attain their interests collectively all while hedging against the bombastic demands against their sovereignty and autonomy by President Trump.
Andrew Erskine is a research fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy and a 2025 Arctic Frontier Emerging Leader
