Irritation in Copenhagen for Washington’s maneuvers on Greenland, vast expanse of ice, rare lands and geopolitical ambitions: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has convened the US business officer, the highest US diplomat in the country, after the revelations of the Danish public TV Dr on “influence operations” conducted in the autonomous territory by at least three American citizens, linked to the adventurer of Donald Trump.
The suspicion is of a campaign to change the political climate and consent on the island, pushing it to the secession and the transition to the United States. “Any attempt at interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom will obviously be unacceptable,” said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen in announcing the call. According to Dr, the Danish secret services would have identified the presence of “at least three” people engaged in Greenland to work on a fracture with Denmark. The issuer also claimed to know the names of the three, underlining its proximity to Trump.
However, he did not clarify if they act on a direct mandate of the White House or on their own initiative. One of them would have gone to the island for meetings and to draw up a list of potential allies of the US aims, urged to “report cases that can put Denmark in the American media in a bad light”. The other two would have been committed to creating contacts of contacts with politicians and entrepreneurs. In May the Wall Street Journal had reported that the Trump administration would ask intensifying services to collect information on Greenland, independence and moods on the island compared to a possible American economic presence.
“There was no ally,” Copenhagen had repeated. It is not the first time that Groenlandia enters the Trump agenda. Already in 2019 he had launched the idea – called “absurd” by the premier he puts Frederiksen – to “buy” the island. Returning to the White House, he rekindled the spotlight on the region, claiming their strategic value and “needs” for US national security. Both Nuuk, the capital Inuit, and both Copenhagen have clarified several times that the island is not on sale.
Greenland enjoys a large autonomy, leaving only the decisions on foreign, monetary and security policy in Copenhagen. It can be disconnected from Denmark by referendum, but a recent survey (of the Verian Institute for Berlingske and Songsiaq) has highlighted how 85% of the inhabitants do not want to be part of the United States.
Discovered expanse of ice, 2.1 million square kilometers of surface (seven times Italy), is inhabited by just 56 thousand people and houses rich deposits of rare and decisive critical minerals in the energy transition and the high-tech industry. It hosts the American aerial base of Pituffikik/Thule, crucial for the missile defense and surveillance system in the Arctic chessboard. And it is all the more strategic considering that Vladimir Putin’s Russia also intensified the military presence in the Arctic, strengthening bases and breaking roars, and claiming increasing portions of the continental platform.
A few days ago the Trump administration blocked a 1.5 billion dollar project for the Revolution Wind wind farm, made with the Danish RSTed group and now close to completion, in a move that has been read as a retaliation in the increasingly growing tensions with Copenhagen.