Denmark struggles to stay calm in crisis over Trump’s threat to take over Greenland

Copenhagen’s gloomy January weather matches the mood of Danish politicians and businessmen.

“We take this situation very, very seriously,” Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said of Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, and punish Denmark with high tariffs if he gets in the way.

But, he added, the government “had no intention of increasing the war of words”.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen played down Trump’s own suggestion that the US might use military force to take over Greenland. “I don’t have the fantasy to imagine it will ever come to that,” he told Danish television.

And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Industry, also said “every reason to be calm… nobody has any interest in a trade war”.

But behind the scenes, hastily arranged high-level meetings have been taking place in Copenhagen all week, reflecting the shock caused by Trump’s remarks.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede flew in on Wednesday to meet the Prime Minister and King Frederik X.

And on Thursday night, leaders from across the political spectrum gathered for an extraordinary meeting on the crisis with Mette Frederiksen in the Danish parliament.

Faced with what many in Denmark are calling Trump’s “provocation”, Frederiksen has tried to strike a friendly tone by repeatedly calling the US “Denmark’s closest partner”.

It was “natural” for the US to be concerned about the Arctic and Greenland, he added.

However, he also said that any decision about the future of Greenland must be in the hands of his people: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders… and it is the Greenlanders themselves who must determine their future.”

His cautious approach is twofold.

On the one hand, Frederiksen is keen to avoid escalating the situation. They were burned before, in 2019, when Trump canceled a trip to Denmark after saying the proposal to buy Greenland was “nonsense.”

“Then he had another year in office, and then things went back to normal,” veteran political journalist Erik Holstein told the BBC. “But maybe this is the new normal.”

But Frederiksen’s comments also speak to a determination not to interfere in the internal affairs of Greenland, an autonomous territory with its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning toward independence.

“He should have been much clearer in rejecting the idea,” said opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.

“This level of disrespect for a very loyal ally and friend by a former US president sets a record,” he told the BBC, although he admitted Trump’s strength had “surprised everyone”.

The conservative MP believes that Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenland…can decide and define the future of Greenland” was putting too much pressure on the island’s inhabitants. “It would have been prudent and smart to stand behind Greenland and make it clear that Denmark does not want (US ownership).”

The Greenland question is a delicate one for Denmark, whose prime minister recently officially apologized for presiding over a 1950s social experiment in which Inuit children were taken from their families to be rebuilt as “model Danes”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory needed to free itself from the “chains of colonialism”.

In doing so, he tapped into a growing nationalist sentiment fueled by interest in indigenous Inuit culture and history among Greenland’s younger generation.

Most commentators expect a successful independence referendum in the near future. Although it would be seen as a victory for many, it could also create a new problem, as 60% of Greenland’s economy depends on Denmark.

An independent Greenland “would have to make choices,” said Karsten Hong. The Social Democrat MP now fears that a new Commonwealth-style pact favoring an option “based on equality and democracy” is unlikely to emerge.

Sitting in his Parliament office, which is decorated with poems and drawings depicting scenes from Inuit life, Hong said Greenland would have to decide “how much it values ​​independence”. He could cut ties with Denmark and turn to the US, Hong said, “but if you treasure independence, that doesn’t make sense.”

Opposition MP Jarlov says there is no point in forcing Greenland to become part of Denmark, “it is already very close to being an independent country”.

Its capital is the autonomous Nuuk, but it relies on Copenhagen to manage currency, foreign relations and defence, as well as major subsidies.

“Greenland currently has more independence from the EU than Denmark does,” Jarlov added. “So I hope you think things through.”

With Mette Frederiksen having the awkward task of responding firmly while not offending Greenland or the US, the most candid rebuttal to Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Denmark.

The principle of the inviolability of borders “applies to all countries … no matter how small or very strong,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU would not abandon it. other nations “attack its sovereign borders.”

Their comments signaled deep concern within the EU about how to handle a Trump presidency. “This is not very serious for Greenland and Denmark, it is very serious for the whole world and Europe,” said MP Karsten Honge.

“Imagine a world – which we will face in a few weeks – in which no international agreement exists. That would shake everything up, and Denmark would be a small part of it.”

Denmark’s trade sector has also been deeply nervous after Trump said he would “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if he refused to cede Greenland to the US.

A 2024 Danish Industry study showed that Denmark’s GDP would drop by three percentage points if the US imposed 10% tariffs on imports from the EU to the US as part of a global trade war.

It would be nearly impossible for the US to separate Danish products from EU goods, and would almost certainly lead to retaliatory measures from the EU. But trade industry professionals are taking few risks, and elsewhere on the continent like Denmark are spending huge amounts of resources internally to plan the possible outcomes of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

As its inauguration approaches, the Danes are preparing as best they can to weather the storm. There is keen hope that the president-elect may soon turn his attention to grievances with other EU partners and that the Greenland issue can be temporarily shelved.

But the unease caused by Trump’s rejection of military intervention to seize Greenland remains.

Karsten Hong said that Denmark would be affected by the decision made by the US.

“All they have to do is send a small ship to travel off the coast of Greenland and send a polite letter to Denmark,” he said, partly in jest.

“The last sentence would be: Well, Denmark, what are you going to do about it?

“That’s the new reality when it comes to Trump.”