‘The tensions were very high in January with arguments flying... There needed to be some kind of de-escalation.’
PEOPLE sit inside a cafe in Nuuk, as a television broadcasts US President Donald Trump amid ongoing reactions to his statements about Greenland’s future during heightened geopolitical tensions over the Arctic territory.
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse
Denmark and Greenland are taking a cautious approach to calm tensions after US President Donald Trump repeatedly suggested the United States could take control of Greenland, ahead of Denmark’s general election later this month.
“The tensions were very high in January with arguments flying... There needed to be some kind of de-escalation,” Astrid Andersen, a historian at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told AFP.
Trump has said Greenland is needed for US “national security,” but officials in Copenhagen and Nuuk hope NATO defense cooperation against Russia and China, along with a diplomatic working group including Washington, will ease the issue.
“The meetings on a diplomatic level take the temperature a notch down. And so the strategy now seems to be to keep it there and try to avoid arguing through the media and social media,” Andersen said.
US interest in the Arctic territory remains, but Greenlandic and Danish leaders insist any transfer of sovereignty is off the table. A recent Trump proposal to send a US hospital ship to Greenland was firmly rejected, but did not worsen relations.
“The Danish government will do everything it can to keep things calm,” polar geopolitics researcher Mikaa Mered said.
Denmark votes on 24 March, while Greenlanders will elect two MPs to the Danish parliament. Greenland, a Danish colony for three centuries, now enjoys autonomous rule, though its main parties continue to seek independence.
“This is the first time there has been such close cooperation between Copenhagen and Nuuk,” said Julie Rademacher, chair of the National Organisation for Greenlanders in Denmark.
“We have to start our reconciliation process today,” she said, while noting past scars could be exploited by the Trump administration.
Greenlandic politician Aqqaluk Lynge, founder of the left-wing party Inuit Ataqatigiit, urged caution.
“We have to be very careful about everything,” he said.
“He will use everything,” Lynge added, warning that Trump could co-opt Greenland’s independence aspirations. “We must make sure these elections are not influenced by the United States.”
Civil society in Nuuk is also exercising restraint, wary of US influence. Some contentious topics, including the forced contraception campaign imposed on young Greenlandic women by Danish authorities from the late 1960s to 1991, have been set aside for now.
Denmark issued a formal apology in 2025 and promised compensation. A legal report examining whether the abuses constitute genocide was submitted to the Greenlandic government in February but has not been released.
“If the conclusion points to genocide, then it’s bound to create some new waves,” Andersen said.
“The governments will have to deal with that, and the Trump administration will most likely try to use that, too,” she added.
A highly choreographed visit last month by Denmark’s King Frederik X to Greenland projected a united Kingdom of Denmark, including Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.
“Part of his visit was of course also meant to create nice counter-images to the US... Images of the king being welcomed in Greenland that are meant to demonstrate that the relations with Denmark are strong and positive,” Andersen said.
