Trump curiosity in Greenland is ‘wake-up name to Copenhagen’, says minister

A Greenlandic authorities minister has mentioned she views Donald Trump’s curiosity within the territory as constructive, saying it has acted as a “wake-up name to Copenhagen” after years of failing to adequately reply to its calls for for motion on minerals and alleged abuses by the Danish state.

Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for housing, infrastructure, minerals, justice and gender equality, mentioned the federal government had been attempting to drum up curiosity in collaboration with each the EU and the US for “a few years”, however it was solely now that it was getting the eye it had been looking for.

Her feedback got here after the prime minister on Monday mentioned that Greenland had began a dialogue with the US and is looking for to cooperate with the Trump administration. Greenland, he mentioned, was open to nearer ties with the US and had its “doorways open by way of mining.”. He didn’t nonetheless say he could be open to a US takeover of the autonomous territory after the president-elect raised alarm bells final week when he refused to rule out army intervention to realize management of Greenland.

Nathanielsen instructed the Guardian: “Now we have been attempting to get extra involvement from each the EU and the US for a few years now, so I feel that is to some extent, I’d say with some hesitance, the sort of consideration we now have been looking for.”

Normally, she mentioned, the Danish media present little curiosity in chatting with her about both minerals or the compelled contraceptive scandal, during which at the least 4,500 women and girls are believed to have been forcibly fitted with the contraceptive coil with out their consent or data by the hands of Danish medical doctors between 1966 and 1970 alone in an try to cut back the inhabitants of the previous Danish colony.

However having spent the final week in Denmark for conferences that had been deliberate earlier than Trump’s renewed curiosity in Greenland turned some extent of worldwide curiosity and from some quarters alarm, she mentioned she is all of a sudden inundated with curiosity.

“In my on a regular basis life as a minister for pure sources in Greenland I get quite a lot of consideration from international press … I rarely communicate to Danish press,” she mentioned.

“The IUD scandal is one other instance. I get quite a lot of consideration from exterior media however from the Danish perspective they’re simply not that . So I feel this has been a wakeup name to Copenhagen.”

She added that additionally it is true of Danish curiosity within the parenting take a look at scandal which has resulted within the separation of Greenlandic mother and father from youngsters.

Amid rising requires independence from Denmark, Greenland will leverage US curiosity to demand justice from Denmark, she mentioned.

“I count on that from our facet we’ll use this renewed curiosity in our relationship [with Denmark] to underscore the significance that they don’t cease right here. They’ve to have a look at the IUD scandal, they’ve to have a look at the adoptions they usually have to assert duty and ensure these circumstances are settled and to be sure that we may give peace to the individuals who have been concerned. I’ll undoubtedly proceed the strain.”

Greenland and the US are already collaborating on minerals because of a 2019 settlement made throughout the first Trump administration, however that settlement is coming to an finish. Now, Nathanielsen mentioned, Greenland is hoping for a brand new settlement.

To this point, the US and Greenland’s collaboration on minerals has included mapping, evaluation, subject work and direct advertising, she mentioned. Now she hopes it should result in financing to assist get tasks beneath method.