Protests at new US consulate after Trump envoy says time for US ‘to put its footprint back’ on Greenland | Greenland
Hundreds of people protested the opening of a new US consulate in Nuuk following comments by the US special envoy for Greenland that it was time for Washington to “re-establish its footprint” in the Arctic region.
Many Greenlandic politicians, including the prime minister, said they would not be able to attend Thursday’s official opening.
Protesters carried Greenlandic flags and signs reading “USA Asu” (Stop USA) and shouted “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” outside the Greenlandic parliament before shouting “go home” outside the US consulate.
US special envoy Jeff Landry arrived in Nuuk uninvited with a delegation that included a doctor, causing outrage when Landry said he was “there to assess Greenland’s medical needs”. Landry attended a brief business conference with the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Lowery, and left Nuuk on Wednesday night.
Landry told Agence France-Presse during his visit that he thought “it’s time for the United States to put its footprint on Greenland again.”
He said: “Greenland needs the United States. I think you see the president talking about increasing national security operations and repopulating some of the bases in Greenland.”
Meanwhile, negotiations between the United States, Greenland and Denmark continue despite Copenhagen lacking a fully functioning government amid record-long coalition talks.
Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, reiterated this week that the largely autonomous territory – a former Danish colony that remains part of the Danish kingdom – is not for sale, but also said Greenland “has to find a solution” with the US.
The US already had a consulate in Nuuk in a modest traditional-style building, but its move to new premises in a modern high-rise is symbolic of the growing US presence.
Aqqalukkuluk Fontain, 37, an IT account executive who organized the protest because of strong sentiment against the US presence in Nuuk, said: “It is now more important than ever to show the American people what we have said before, that no means no, and that Greenland’s future and self-determination belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
Fontain added: “The protest itself is not to incite Donald Trump or Jeff Landry, but to show the world that Greenland has its own democracy.”
He said Greenland’s future concerns the whole world. “What the US is trying to do is very dangerous, because if Greenland falls, the world falls and this could lead to a third world war.”
Christian Keldsen, executive director of the Greenland Business Alliance, which organizes the Greenland of the Future conference, said Landry did not get the reception he had hoped for.
“Three months ago Greenland was under threat of invasion and takeover, and [Landry] “He was one of the people who supported that statement,” he said. “Then three months later you come here and want to make friends, you’re handing out chocolates to kids and you’re trying to hand out Maga hats.”
Speakers at the conference included Rufus Gifford, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark from 2013 to 2017, who criticized Landry’s comments to reporters that no top diplomats had visited Greenland before Trump became president.
Gifford said in a video posted on social media: “He wants Greenlanders to be grateful to Donald Trump. You’re out of line, man. You’re out of line. Go home.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invade Greenland, which he claims the United States needs for its national security. In addition to being on the shortest route for missiles between the United States and Russia, Greenland also attracts global attention for its critical location for rare earth minerals and shipping as polar ice melts.
A spokesman for US Northern Command (Northcom) told the Guardian last month that the US was “considering options to strengthen homeland defense efforts in Greenland” and that the new defense areas would be established “in accordance with the 1951 treaty on the defense of Greenland”.
These included plans for “significant investment” in Pituffik, where the US already has a base, and the possibility of “expanding defense areas beyond Pituffik”. Other areas being evaluated include Narsarsuaq, a settlement in southern Greenland, but no final decision has been made yet, the spokesman said.
The U.S. is also looking at the use of deep-water ports and longer airfields “particularly to support maritime surveillance and operations in the North Atlantic and to monitor activities beyond the Greenland-Iceland-Britain Gap,” Northcom said.
They said the US was “coordinating with the Kingdom of Denmark on field investigations and assessments” that are expected to last several months.
As coalition talks between political leaders in Copenhagen enter their eighth week following the general elections held in March, the foreign policy committee continues to meet. Danish acting foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen will attend the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Thursday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be there.
In an interview with the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, Landry appeared to be trying to capitalize on Greenland’s future hopes for full independence from Denmark.
“I think there are some incredible opportunities that can really move Greenlanders from dependence to independence,” he said. “I think the president of the United States wants to see the country become economically independent. And I think that’s possible here.”
