Denmark struggles to stay calm in crisis over Trump threat to take Greenland

Copenhagen’s gloomy January climate matches the temper amongst Denmark’s politicians and enterprise leaders.

“We take this case very, very critically,” stated Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Donald Trump’s threats to amass Greenland – and punish Denmark with excessive tariffs if it stands in the way in which.

However, he added, the federal government had “no ambition in anyway to escalate some confrontation.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen downplayed Trump’s personal suggestion that the US would possibly use army drive to grab Greenland. “I haven’t got the fantasy to think about that it will ever get to that,” she informed Danish TV.

And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Business, additionally stated there was “each purpose to remain calm… no-one has any curiosity in a commerce struggle.”

However behind the scenes, swiftly organised high-level conferences have been going down in Copenhagen all week, a mirrored image of the shock attributable to Trump’s remarks.

Greenland PM Mute Egede flew in to satisfy each the prime minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.

And on Thursday night time, social gathering leaders from throughout the political spectrum gathered for a rare assembly on the disaster with Mette Frederiksen in Denmark’s parliament.

Confronted with what many in Denmark are calling Trump’s “provocation,” Frederiksen has broadly tried to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the US as “Denmark’s closest companion”.

It was “solely pure” that the US was preoccupied by the Arctic and Greenland, she added.

But she additionally stated that any resolution on Greenland’s future needs to be as much as its folks alone: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders… and it is the Greenlanders themselves who must outline their future.”

Her cautious strategy is twofold.

On the one hand, Frederiksen is eager to keep away from escalating the scenario. She’s been burned earlier than, in 2019, when Trump cancelled a visit to Denmark after she stated his proposal to purchase Greenland was “absurd”.

“Again then he solely had yet one more yr in workplace, then issues went again to regular,” veteran political journalist Erik Holstein informed the PJDM . “However possibly that is the brand new regular.”

However Frederiksen’s feedback additionally converse to the Danish resolve to not meddle within the inside affairs of Greenland – an autonomous territory with its personal parliament and whose inhabitants is more and more leaning in direction of independence.

“She ought to’ve been a lot clearer in rejecting the thought,” stated opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.

“This degree of disrespect from the approaching US president in direction of very, very loyal allies and mates is record-setting,” he informed the PJDM, though he admitted Trump’s forcefulness had “stunned all people.”

The conservative MP believed Frederiksen’s insistence that “solely Greenland… can resolve and outline Greenland’s future” positioned an excessive amount of strain on the island’s inhabitants. “It could’ve been prudent and intelligent to face behind Greenland and simply clearly state that Denmark does not need [a US takeover].”

The Greenland query is a fragile one for Denmark, whose prime minister formally apologised solely lately for spearheading a Nineteen Fifties social experiment which noticed Inuit kids faraway from their households to be re-educated as “mannequin Danes”.

Final week, Greenland’s chief stated the territory ought to free itself from “the shackles of colonialism.”

By doing so he tapped into rising nationalist sentiment, fuelled by curiosity amongst Greenland’s youthful generations within the indigenous tradition and historical past of the Inuit.

Most commentators now anticipate a profitable independence referendum within the close to future. Whereas for a lot of it will be seen as a victory, it might additionally usher in a brand new set of issues, as 60% of Greenland’s financial system depends on Denmark.

An impartial Greenland “would want to make selections,” stated Karsten Honge. The Social Democrat MP now fears his most popular possibility of a brand new Commonwealth-style pact “based mostly on equality and democracy” is unlikely to come back about.

Sitting in his parliamentary workplace adorned with poems and drawings depicting scenes of Inuit life, Honge stated Greenland would want to resolve “how a lot it values independence”. It might sever ties with Denmark and switch to the US, Honge stated, “however for those who treasure independence then that does not make sense.”

Opposition MP Jarlov argues that whereas there is no such thing as a level in forcing Greenland to be a part of Denmark, “it is extremely near being an impartial nation already”.

Its capital Nuuk is self-governed, however depends on Copenhagen for administration of foreign money, international relations and defence – in addition to substantial subsidies.

“Greenland in the present day has extra independence than Denmark has from the EU,” Jarlov added. “So I hope they assume issues by.”

As Mette Frederiksen has the awkward process of responding firmly whereas not offending Greenland or the US, the staunchest rebuttal to Trump’s feedback to this point has come from outdoors Denmark.

The precept of the inviolability of borders “applies to each nation… regardless of whether or not it is a very small one or a really highly effective one,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, whereas French Overseas Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated the EU wouldn’t let different nations “assault its sovereign borders”.

Their feedback gave away the deep concern inside the EU about tips on how to deal with the upcoming Trump presidency. “This isn’t simply very critical for Greenland and Denmark – it’s critical to the entire world and to Europe as a complete,” MP Karsten Honge stated.

“Think about a world – which we could also be going through in just some weeks – the place worldwide agreements do not exist. That might shake every little thing up, and Denmark would simply be a small a part of it.”

The Danish commerce sector has equally been engulfed by deep nervousness after Trump stated he would “tariff Denmark at a really excessive degree” if it refused to surrender Greenland to the US.

A 2024 Danish Business research confirmed that Denmark’s GDP would fall by three factors if the US imposed 10% tariffs on imports from the EU to the US as a part of a worldwide commerce struggle.

Singling out Danish merchandise from the inflow of EU items could be near-impossible for the US, and would nearly definitely lead to retaliatory measures from the EU. However commerce trade professionals are taking few probabilities, and in Denmark as elsewhere on the continent enormous quantities of sources are being spent internally to plan for potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s second time period within the White Home.

As his inauguration approaches, Danes are getting ready as they’ll to climate the storm. There may be guarded hope that the president-elect might quickly shift his focus to grievances in direction of different EU companions, and that the Greenland query might be briefly shelved.

However the disquiet introduced on by Trump’s refusal to rule out army intervention to grab Greenland stays.

Karsten Honge stated Denmark would have undergo no matter resolution the US takes.

“They only must ship a small battleship to journey down the Greenland coast and ship a well mannered letter to Denmark,” he stated, solely partly in jest.

“The final sentence could be: nicely, Denmark, what you gonna do about it?

“That is the brand new actuality almost about Trump.”