Trump wants to buy what?
Greenlanders scoff at idea that U.S. could add the island for its resources
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK >> President Donald Trump’s idea to possibly buy Greenland for its natural resources left residents of the semiautonomous Danish territory amused, apoplectic and in disbelief and received a chilly reception in Denmark on Friday.
“I hope it’s a joke, because it’s a terrible and grotesque thought,” said Martin Lidegaard, chairman of Denmark’s Foreign Policy Committee.
“It must be an April Fool’s Day joke … but totally out of season,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark and the leader of the opposition, posted on Twitter.
The idea first sprang up last year, according to a New York Times report Thursday, when Trump joked about buying Greenland for its natural wealth during a meeting that spring in the Oval Office. Citing people familiar with his thinking, the article said he had repeatedly returned to the possibility, adding that the country, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, also appeals to him because its location in the North Atlantic has security value.
His advisers were highly skeptical that a purchase of the world’s largest island could ever happen, but they agreed to investigate the possibility.
“Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries — including the United States,” Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s premier, said in a statement, according to the Ritzau news agency.
The foreign minister, Ane Lone Bagger, echoed that sentiment to reporters.
The report is likely to add a previously unexpected element to Trump’s planned
state visit in less than three weeks to Denmark to meet with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Queen Margrethe II and the leaders of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Greenland and the Arctic are high on the agenda.
The Danish prime minister’s office did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment.
Social media users were quick to exploit the report about the American president’s exploring the purchase of Greenland. One edited a photo of a pompous-looking golden tower into a picture of Greenlandic villages with colorful two-story wooden houses. Another asked if Denmark could trade Greenland for Hawaii.
But at the center of the international contretemps, there was little to laugh about, politicians and residents said.
“It’s never nice to be treated as a commodity,” said Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic member of the Danish Parliament.
Greenland, a nation of 56,000, has a shared history with Denmark since the first Vikings settled there a millennium ago. If that relationship were to change, it would not be up to Denmark and certainly not up to an American president’s “impulse,” said Henrik O. Breitenbauch, an expert on Greenland and the head of the Center for Military Studies at Copenhagen University.
“You don’t just trade people and countries,” Breitenbauch added.
The speculation is that Trump, a former real estate developer, was keen on Greenland because he tends to see the world through a prism of acquisitions. And Greenland, located among both friendly and hostile neighbors, has everything a real estate investor could desire in terms of fresh air, direct access to the sea, an abundance of shrimp, cod and halibut and a backyard rich with lucrative minerals.
Nearby international sea routes allow for quick passage to all corners of the globe (when the ice permits). But the island’s population may see little to gain from exchanging the Danish queen as their head of state with an American president who has angered traditional allies by disparaging NATO and pulling the United States out of long-held treaties like the Paris climate accord.
“Greenland could choose to become Puerto Rico with snow, but I doubt there’s much interest in that,” Breitenbauch said, referring to the unincorporated U.S. territory.
The country also has more pressing worries: Climate change has accelerated the melting of Greenland’s mile-thick ice sheet, leaving behind lots of sand. If the entire ice sheet melted, it would raise sea levels by about 20 feet, studies show.
In recent years, the Danish government has asserted its influence over Greenland to block Chinese investments out of concern for potential Greenlandic dependence on China. The Danish involvement has caused friction with Greenlandic leaders, who have denounced it as neocolonialism.
Although Greenland now has its own government with vast autonomy, its foreign and defense policies originate in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, as does part of its national budget: Greenland receives $740 million annually from Denmark.
Greenland has vital strategic importance to Denmark, but it’s also an integral part of Danish history and its self-image as a nation of explorers and sailors.
“It’s been a space for exploration, discovery and part of the narrative of the creation of the modern Danish nation,” Breitenbauch said. “We would become a much more parochial part of Europe without.”