Does Greenland really belong to Denmark?

Nordic politicians are trying to stir up anxiety following Donald Trump’s operation in Venezuela – and his threat to grab Greenland. They are failing. Ultimately, it is a matter of time before the United States takes control of the world’s largest island. Trump’s approach is bullying and aggressive, but Denmark’s argument for why Greenland belongs to it is rather shaky.

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has said ‘the US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom’, including Greenland. Denmark claims that other states have historically either recognised, or made no objections to, its sovereignty over Greenland. Case closed, says Copenhagen. But Denmark needs to wake up. Trump has changed the situation. His willingness to break the rules, not least by seizing the leader of another country and hauling him in chains to New York, shows he is serious about taking action when it comes to getting what he wants.

Indeed, the president has said as much. Trump has said that he is ‘very serious’ about annexing Greenland. One of Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, said that Greenland rightfully belongs to the US. No country can stop America from annexing the Danish territory, he said. Miller is right, of course. As a result, the Danes are now scrambling to justify their dominion over Greenland, which is inhabited by a nation other than the Danes. They are struggling to come up with a convincing justification.

The truth is that Greenland never chose to become part of the Danish state. The country drifted, along with Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Norway into the Danish realm in the 14th century after our Norwegian kin gave up on an independent kingdom. The arguments for Danish authority over Greenland are historical, but neither moral nor political. Denmark – meaning the Jutland peninsula and the Øresund islands – is on a different continent than Greenland, which geographically belongs to North America. Denmark also struggles to advance a military argument for Greenland being part of the Danish kingdom.

So, Denmark is resorting to trying to win sympathy from its allies. Frederiksen complains that the US is threatening a ‘historical ally’. Trump’s response is simple: he says that the US needs Greenland more than Denmark does. On Greenland, American security and defence interests are at stake, not Danish ones, he insists. Again, it’s hard to fault that Trump is on stronger ground than Denmark here.

It’s time for Frederiksen to wake up to that fact that the Danes are losing the argument on Greenland. It’s unlikely that the US will take over Greenland by military force. What seems more likely is that sustained pressure from the US will lead to a peaceful resolution that will be dressed in diplomatic garb. Before Trump leaves office, Greenland will become American, but sovereign in name only.