Whilst President Trump’s demand to take control of Greenland has caused understandable dismay, it does have the positive impact of drawing attention to the Arctic region and its crucial importance for both environmental and security reasons.
In 2018, I was part of a delegation of Parliamentarians who visited Greenland to better understand the challenges this sparsely populated country faces (featured in the photo above).
One of the most memorable meetings we had was with Major General Kim Jesper Jorgensen, Commanding General of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command, which is headquartered in the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk.
We heard about the Danish military patrols on the Greenland ice sheet. The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol is an elite unit established during the early Cold War to monitor activity in the vast uninhabited regions of Iceland and assert Denmark’s sovereignty in response to geopolitical interests in the Arctic. A single patrol of two soldiers can last for months in the empty wilderness and involve operating in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees centigrade.
The seas known as the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap were vital during the Cold War because of the route to the Atlantic they provided for Russia. Large concentrations of NATO vessels were routinely deployed there. General Jorgensen spoke of growing Russian and Chinese interest in the region, including increased presence of what are believed to be Russian spy ships.
The strategic importance of Greenland is likely to intensify as global heating opens up more of the polar region to shipping, and also means the rare earth mineral resources of the world’s biggest island may well become more viable to extract.
The country is of course also in the front line of global heating. The billions of gallons of waters locked up in its glaciers could have a major impact on sea levels and reshape coastlines around the world if efforts to address climate change are successful.
The United States used to have several bases in Greenland. It now maintains just one at Thule, but has the right in perpetuity to establish ‘defence areas’ in the country.
So there are well established existing mechanisms for the US to strengthen its security and safeguard its strategic interests in the Arctic region, without the dramatic transfer of sovereignty floated by Mr Trump.
Whatever the outcome of this debate, decisions on the future of Greenland must ultimately lie with its people. One of the biggest barriers to becoming part of America would be the fact that Washington seems highly unlikely to accept the kind of welfare provision and block grant funding currently provided by Denmark.
In an early example of disinformation and misleading advertising, a country with a pretty harsh landscape and climate was given its name by Eric the Red, the first European to visit the country. He chose to call it Greenland because he wanted to attract colonists to join the settlement he founded there. That colony provided the stopping off point which enabled Scandinavian exploration of the coast of north America, centuries before Columbus.
So this is not the first time that Greenland has attracted attention because of its crucial position between America and Europe. That initial European presence came to an end, probably because of a cooling climate. The indigenous Greenlandic population remain proud of their heritage and culture and anyone wishing to shape the future of the country should start by talking to them.
