Greenland opposition leader backs direct talks with US
Greenland should hold direct talks with the US government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader said, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to President Donald Trump’s renewed effort to bring it under US control.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical region for the US ballistic missile defense system.
Rich mineral resources also fit into Trump’s goal of reducing US dependence on China.
The island is an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark.
It has its own parliament and government, but Denmark retains authority over foreign affairs and defence.
“We encourage our current (Greenlandic) government to dialogue with the US government without Denmark,” said Pele Broberg, leader of Naleraq, the largest opposition party and the most prominent political voice for Greenlandic independence.
“Because Denmark, by mediating, angers both Greenland and the United States.”
Naleraq, who strongly advocates rapid progress towards full independence, doubled his seat count to eight in last year’s elections, winning 25 percent of the vote in the country of just 57,000 people.
Despite remaining outside the ruling coalition, the party has said it wants a defense agreement with the United States and could pursue a “free association” arrangement in which Greenland would receive U.S. support and protection in exchange for military rights without becoming U.S. territory.
All Greenlandic parties want independence but have different views on how and when to achieve it.
Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said Greenland cannot hold direct talks with the United States without Denmark because it is not legally allowed to do so.
“We must respect the law and we have rules on how to solve problems in the Kingdom,” he told newspaper Sermitsiaq.
The governments of Denmark and Greenland did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Broberg’s remarks.
The comments came ahead of a planned meeting next week between the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address tensions between the NATO military alliance allies.
Motzfeldt said it was important to put Greenland’s relationship with the United States on a stable path.
“My greatest hope is that the meeting will lead to the normalization of our relations,” Sermitsiaq told Sermitsiaq.
Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, said Denmark and Greenland were trying to direct the discussion towards a diplomatic path where rational concerns could be addressed.
“The strategy is to ensure that Trump’s undiplomatic social media statements are funneled back into stable diplomatic channels,” he told Reuters.
In Brussels, NATO ambassadors held a “cordial” meeting on Greenland on Thursday and reached broad agreement that the alliance should strengthen its Arctic security efforts, according to people familiar with the talks.
“There is no drama,” a senior NATO diplomat said.
“There is a lot of agreement that NATO should accelerate the development of a stronger deterrent presence in the region.”
Exactly what additional steps NATO might take has not yet been determined.
Some countries have suggested using the alliance’s operations on its eastern flank (Baltic Sentinel and Eastern Sentinel) as potential models.
Both missions use drones, sensors and other technologies to monitor land and sea, while flexibly deploying international forces to protect multiple countries.
