Katya AdlerNuuk, Greenland
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the fate of Greenland – a semi-autonomous Danish territory that President Donald Trump says he needs for national security.
The vast island finds itself in the eye of a geopolitical storm with Trump’s name on it and the people here are clearly scared.
But when you fly, it is very peaceful. Ice and snow-capped mountains stretch as far as the eye can see, interrupted here and there by sparkling fjords – all between the Arctic and the Atlantic.
It is said to sit on top of the world; most of it above the Arctic Circle.
Greenland is nine times the size of the UK but has only 57,000 inhabitants, most of them indigenous Inuit.
You can find the largest cluster of Greenlands on the southwest coast of the capital, Nuuk. We arrived there as the frozen twilight was creeping across the snow-covered pedestrian streets.
Parents drag their children home from school on sleds, and students wander in and out of brightly lit malls. Few want to talk to us about Trump-related anxiety here. Those who do seem very dark.
A pensioner pounded his stick on the ground in emphasis as he told me that the US should not plant its flag in the capital of Greenland.
A woman who says she does not trust everyone these days, and did not give her name, admitted that she was “scared to death” about the possibility that Trump will take the island by force after he watched his military intervention in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, 20-something pottery-maker Pilu Chemnitz said: “I think we are all very tired of the US president. We have always lived a quiet and peaceful life here.
“Of course, the colonization of Denmark caused a lot of trauma for a lot of people but we just wanted to be alone.”
Regardless of opposition to the US takeover, which 85% of Greenlanders say they do, most also say they favor independence from Denmark – although many have told me they also appreciate the subsidies that come from there to help improve their welfare state. While rich in untapped natural resources, poverty is a real issue here in Inuit communities.
In general, Greenlanders want a bigger, stronger say, not only in their domestic policies, but in foreign affairs as well.
I went to the island’s modest-looking parliament, its body built in Scandinavian style with wooden planks and painted the same polished red as the Greenlandic flags flying at the entrance.
There are no security checks. Everyone was pretty relaxed. Except for the roaring polar bear emblem – a symbol of Greenland, emblazoned on every sliding glass door we pass.
I was there to meet Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, co-chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee. He is an MP with the pro-independence Inuit Ataqatigiit party that is part of the coalition government here.
“I think it’s very important for us to say what we want as a people,” he told me. “We were always working towards independence when we got home rule in 1979 and more independence in 2009.”
I asked Lynge-Rasmussen if he felt that the world’s major powers – the US, Denmark, Nato, and the EU – were saying more about Greenland today, than the islanders about their fate.
He nodded loudly. Ironically, perhaps, he blames Denmark more than he blames Trump for overlooking the wants and needs of Greenlanders.
Although Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, he said, he feels they are often treated like second-class citizens.
But Lynge-Rasmussen insisted that Greenlanders should not see themselves as victims of the current situation. Instead, he suggested they use the international spotlight now to show their importance and push their priorities.
What about next week’s meeting with Rubio, I asked?
“I hope the meeting will end with understanding and compromise,” he replied.
“Maybe doing business with (the US) from here … maybe doing business with, or mining, with a lot of American (military) bases in Greenland, maybe?”
Under a bilateral agreement with Denmark dating back to 1951 the US can bring as many US troops as it wants to Greenland.
This has confused European allies as to why Trump feels the need to “take” the island unilaterally: whether to buy it – seems to be the preferred option of Washington, or to encourage the Greenlanders to vote in a plebiscite to become part of the US, or to take Greenland by force, something that the Trump administration refuses to rule.
It will not require much flexing of military muscles. Greenland has few trained soldiers and no military base of its own.
Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance justified their need to “take” Greenland because they said that Denmark was not enough to secure the island. Copenhagen disputes this.
It is also worth noting that the US already has a military base in Greenland – and it has chosen to reduce its presence there from about 10,000 personnel during the peak Cold War times to about 200 today.
The US has long focused on Arctic security, until recently.
Trump’s keen interest in the island is likely a mix of:
- known national security concerns
- a hunger for the rich natural resources that Greenland boasts, including rare earths and minerals
- and his loudly voiced desire to rule America.
Geographically, Greenland is part of North America.
It is closer to New York City by about 1,000 miles (1,609 km) than to Copenhagen.
This should give Greenlanders pause for thought, opposition MP Pele Broberg of the Naleraq Party told me.
He said people are afraid of what Trump will do in Greenland because they are misinformed, largely due to media hysteria.
“True, we’re not for sale – but we’re open for business. Or should be.
“At the moment we are a colony. We are made to import our goods from Denmark: 4,000km away, rather than the US which is closer.”
Broberg described his organization as the true independence party of the island, which pushes what he says is for independence, so that Greenlanders can sell, on their terms, to any party or country they choose: the US, Denmark or others.
But now, the US is demanding, instead of trade deals between equals.
So what exactly are the national security priorities that Trump sees in Greenland?
In short: the shortest route for a Russian ballistic missile to reach the continental US is Greenland and the North Pole.
Washington DC already has an early warning air base on the island – but Greenland could serve as a base for missile interceptors as part of the Trump administration’s proposed “Golden Dome” system: a plan to protect the US from all missile attacks.
The US is also reportedly discussing placing radars in the waters connecting Greenland, Iceland and the UK – the so-called GIUK Gap. That’s a gateway for Chinese and Russian ships that Washington wants to follow.
There is no naked eye evidence if you are in Greenland to support Trump’s recent statements that there are many Chinese and Russian ships currently around the island.
And last week Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian criticized Washington for “using the so-called ‘China threat’ as an excuse for itself to seek selfish gains” in the Arctic.
But Russia and China are expanding their military capabilities, and intensifying their cooperation elsewhere in the region – with joint maritime patrols and jointly developing new shipping routes.
Under pressure from western sanctions on Ukraine, Moscow wants to send more to Asia.
Beijing is looking for shorter, more profitable sea routes to Europe.
The northern sea route has become easier to navigate due to melting ice, and Greenland opened its representative office in Beijing in 2023 to pursue deeper ties with China.
When it comes to Arctic security, NATO allies hope to convince Washington that they are serious. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reportedly spoke more than once with the US president last week, telling him that Europe will further increase its presence in the region. He also urged European leaders to increase their cooperation with the US there.
Greenland, Denmark and their Nato allies believe there is room for negotiations with Rubio next week and that, at the very least, Trump swooping in on Greenland militarily is unlikely – although not impossible.
The Arctic powers geographically are Denmark, the US, Canada, Russia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Arctic Council, which represents them all, has long tried to maintain the mantra: high north, low tension.
But the military chest-beating and unilateralism from Washington in Greenland, in addition to a wider fight for advantage between the world’s superpowers, add to a real sense of danger in the region.
The decades-long precarious balance in the Arctic, in place since the end of the Cold War, and similarly managed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, could be dangerously upset.
