Greenland residents fear for future as island plunges into geopolitical storm

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials next week to discuss the fate of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that President Donald Trump says he needs for national security.

The vast island finds itself at the heart of a geopolitical storm named after Trump and people here are clearly disturbed.

Yet when you fly in, everything seems so peaceful. Mountains of ice and snow stretch as far as the eye can see, interrupted here and there by sparkling fjords, all between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

It is said to be at the top of the world; much of it above the Arctic Circle.

Greenland is nine times the size of the United Kingdom, but has only 57,000 people, most of them indigenous Inuit.

The capital, Nuuk, is home to the largest group of Greenlanders on the southwest coast. We arrived there as a freezing dusk was settling over the snow-covered pedestrian streets.

Parents brought their children home from school on sleds, and students weaved their way in and out of well-lit shopping malls. Few people wanted to talk to us here about Trump anxiety. Those who did it seemed very gloomy.

A retiree banged his cane on the ground in emphasis, telling me that the United States should never plant its flag in Greenland’s capital.

A lady who said she distrusts everyone these days, and did not give her name, admitted she was “scared to death” that Trump would take the island by force after witnessing his military intervention in Venezuela.

Pilu Chemnitz, a potter in his twenties, said: “I think we are all very tired of the American president. We have always lived a calm and peaceful life here.

“Of course Danish colonization caused a lot of trauma to many people, but we just want to be left alone.”

Not to mention their opposition to a U.S. takeover, which 85 percent of Greenlanders say, most also say they favor Danish independence — although many tell me they appreciate the Danish subsidies that help support their welfare state. Although rich in untapped natural resources, poverty is a real problem here in Inuit communities.

Overall, Greenlanders want to have a say, not only in their domestic politics, but also in foreign affairs.

I visited the island’s modest-looking parliament building, the body of which is built in Scandinavian style with wooden slats and painted the same burnished red as the Greenlandic flags flying at the entrance.

No security checks. It’s all pretty relaxed. Except for the roaring polar bear emblem, the symbol of Greenland, engraved on every sliding glass door we pass.

I was there to meet Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, co-chair of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. She is an MP for the pro-independence Inuit Ataqatigiit party which is part of the coalition government here.

“I think it’s very important for us to say what we want as a people,” she told me. “We have always worked for independence when we achieved autonomy in 1979 and further independence in 2009.”

I asked Lynge-Rasmussen if she felt like the world’s major powers – the US, Denmark, NATO and the EU – were talking a lot about Greenland at the moment, rather than to the islanders about their plight.

She nodded vigorously. Surprisingly, perhaps, she blames Denmark more than Trump for neglecting the wants and needs of the Greenlanders.

Even though Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, she says, she still feels they have always been treated as second-class citizens.

But Lynge-Rasmussen insisted that Greenlanders should not see themselves as victims in the current situation. Instead, she suggests they now use the international attention on them to show their importance and assert their priorities.

What about next week’s meeting with Rubio, I asked?

“I hope the meeting will end with understanding and compromise,” she replied.

“Maybe do business with [the US] from there…maybe cooperate in trade or mining, have more Americans [military] bases in Greenland, perhaps?

Under a bilateral agreement with Denmark dating from 1951, the United States can send as many American troops as it wants to Greenland.

This has led European allies to wonder aloud why Trump feels the need to “take” the island unilaterally: whether he buys it – apparently Washington’s preferred option, or whether he encourages the Greenlanders to vote in a plebiscite to become part of the United States, or whether he takes Greenland by force, something the Trump administration has refused to rule out.

This would not require much mobilization of military muscle. Greenland has few trained soldiers and does not have its own military bases.

Trump and US Vice President JD Vance justify their need to “take” Greenland by claiming that Denmark is not doing enough to secure the island. Copenhagen disputes this.

It’s also worth noting that the United States already has a military base in Greenland and has chosen to drastically reduce its presence there, from around 10,000 personnel at the height of the Cold War to around 200 today.

The United States has long looked away from Arctic security, until recently.

Trump’s keen interest in the island is likely a mix of:

• perceived national security concerns
• a hunger for the rich natural resources that Greenland boasts, including rare earths and minerals
• and his loud and clear desire to dominate the Americas.

Geographically, Greenland is part of North America.

It is closer to New York at approximately 1,609 km than to Copenhagen.

This should give Greenlanders pause, opposition MP Pele Broberg of the Naleraq party told me.

He said people were afraid of what Trump would do to Greenland because they were misinformed, largely due to media hysteria.

“It’s true, we’re not for sale, but we’re open for business. Or rather, we should be.

“Right now we are a colony. We are forced to import our goods from Denmark, 4,000 km away, rather than from the United States, which is much closer.”

Broberg described his organization as the island’s true independence party, pushing, he said, for freedom, so that Greenlanders could trade, on their terms, with any party or country they chose: the United States, Denmark or others.

But currently, the United States is making demands rather than trade agreements 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 United States is via 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 United States from all missile attacks.

The US is also reportedly considering placing radars in the waters connecting Greenland, Iceland and the UK – the so-called GIUK Gap. It is a gateway for Chinese and Russian ships that Washington wants to follow.

There is no naked eye evidence when you are in Greenland to support Trump’s recent claims that many Chinese and Russian ships are currently circulating around the island.

And last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian criticized Washington for “using the so-called ‘China threat’ as a pretext to seek selfish gains” in the Arctic.

But Russia and China have expanded their military capabilities and strengthened cooperation elsewhere in the region – with joint naval patrols and the joint development of new sea routes.

Under pressure from Western sanctions against Ukraine, Moscow wants to ship more products to Asia.

Beijing is seeking shorter, more lucrative sea routes to Europe.

The Northern Sea Route is becoming easier to navigate due to melting ice, and Greenland opened its representative office in Beijing in 2023 in a bid to strengthen ties with China.

When it comes to Arctic security, NATO allies hope to convince Washington they are serious. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reportedly spoke to the US president several times last week, telling him that Europe would further strengthen its presence in the region. He also urged European leaders to increase cooperation with the United States in this area.

Greenland, Denmark and their NATO allies believe there is room for negotiation with Rubio next week and that, at the very least, military intervention by Trump in Greenland is unlikely – but not impossible.

Geographically, the Arctic powers are Denmark, the United States, Canada, Russia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. An Arctic Council, which represents them all, has long tried to maintain the mantra: high north, low voltage.

But Washington’s military chest-thumping and unilateralism over Greenland, as well as the race for advantage among the world’s superpowers, are adding to a real sense of danger in the region.

The delicate balance in the Arctic, in place since the end of the Cold War and even managed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, could be dangerously disrupted.