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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede delivered a direct and clear message in a live interview with Fox News on Thursday evening.
“We don’t want to be Danes or Americans,” he told the network, repeating the stance Greenlandic politicians have insisted on since Trump’s remarks on incorporating the world’s biggest island into the U.S.
As U.S. President-elect Donald Trump did not rule out using military force to acquire Greenland and increasing tariffs on Danish products in the U.S., Copenhagen has been on high alert this week, discussing how to handle the unusual situation.
“We are in a serious situation, and we have been through it for a while now. We are in the process of doing everything we possibly can to handle it as wisely and as well as possible,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday, the day after he had a 45-minute phone call with Trump.
Greenland, located close to the North American continent and about 1,500 miles from Copenhagen, is part of the Danish Commonwealth, first colonized by Denmark in the 18th century.
The Arctic country and its 57,000 inhabitants have been autonomous since 1979, but Copenhagen still determines its justice, defense and foreign affairs, which can clash with Nuuk’s ambitions to attract foreign investments.
Greenlandic politicians insist that financial deals can be made with the U.S. without being subjected to either an American or European power. A call for independence and a search for power equality within the Danish Commonwealth has long been brewing among Greenlandic politicians, who often feel ignored by their Danish counterparts.
The Greenlandic cry for an independent voice has only grown louder since Trump first suggested purchasing the island from Denmark, during his first presidential term in 2019. The incoming U.S. leader made further advances toward Greenland around Christmastime in 2024.
Politicians, commentators and the media in both the U.S. and Denmark went into a frenzy when Donald Trump Jr. went to Greenland on a “tourist” day trip on Jan. 7, as ownership over the country became a global topic.
“A lot of the things going on, and the comments surrounding it, is hopeless,” said Lars Jensen, a lecturer from Roskilde University with expertise in Greenland and postcolonialism. “You recognize a pattern here. Someone becomes a subject for trade between two negotiating parts instead of being included as an equal part in the process.”
Jensen said that the American and Danish news coverages lack a fundamental historical understanding of the situation, and highlights that both presses mirror one element: “The negotiation of Greenland. The thoughts of whether or not to trade Greenland undermine the self-determination of the country.”
“Greenland becomes a pawn in a game,” he added.
‘Attention to the colonial past’
With the current construction of the Danish Commonwealth, it has proven difficult for Greenland in decades to engage politically and financially globally without Copenhagen, which historically has failed to recognize the worries and wishes of various Greenlandic politicians.
On Friday, Denmark’s government agreed with Naalakkersuisut, the Greenlandic counterpart, to scrap standardized psychological tests not deemed appropriate for families with Greenlandic background in Denmark in cases to determine whether a child should be placed in institutional care from its parents.
In 2024, 143 Greenlandic women sued the Danish state for having fitted them with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge, reported The Guardian, a case Egede labeled a “genocide” on Danish national TV.
And in 2022, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued an official apology for an experiment where the Danish state took Greenlandic children from their families in the 1950s, aiming to raise them as future role models in Greenland.
“Attention to the colonial past may have intensified the Greenlandic demands in recent years, where international social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter, have contributed to the shifting tone between Greenlandic and Danish politicians,” said Søren Rud, a historian at Copenhagen University.
“With the current global interest of the country, Greenland has gained extra leverage,” he said, adding that the situation has the potential to bring the country’s relationship with Denmark to a different place, as the latter is becoming more responsive to Greenland’s wishes.
The ball is now in Denmark’s court to secure stable relations with Greenland.
A good place to start, Jensen from Roskilde University said, would be to listen to the Greenlanders and confront the colonial past — which, from a Danish perspective, has been explained as being done with good intentions.
“We need to move away from those sorts of narratives,” Jensen said.
The recent demands Denmark has met are likely just the start of a new reality, where Greenland finds itself in a stronger position toward Copenhagen, partly because of Trump’s unprecedented statements that have tossed the Scandinavian country into a diplomatic crisis.
“If Denmark wants to maintain its relationship with Greenland within the structure of the Unity of the Realm (Danish Commonwealth) or whatever it develops into, Danish politicians listening to Greenlanders play a central role,” Rud said.
“Denmark will probably have to meet the Greenlandic demands and surely listen to what they say and what wishes they have,” he said.
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