The crowd walked through the centre of Nuuk chanting “Greenland is for Greenlanders.” Then it stopped outside the new American consulate and stood in silence, backs turned to the building. A few hundred people took part in the Friday protest, which closed a week in which the US president’s special envoy, Jeff Landry, made his first trip to the territory.
“Our government already told Donald Trump and his administration that Greenland is not for sale,” said Aqqalukkuluk Fontain, who organised the demonstration. The 37-year-old told the BBC: “That in a democratic world, no means no.” Inge Bisgaard, standing in the crowd, said Landry’s visit showed a lack of respect. Parnuna Olsen, 25, asked why the US needed a consulate in Greenland at all.
A bigger building, an absent government
The consulate is a 3000 sq m high-rise in the middle of downtown Nuuk, replacing a wooden cabin. Locals call it “Trump towers”. At the opening, a musician played the American anthem on a ukulele, and US Ambassador to Denmark Kenneth Howery unveiled a plaque. “We will always be neighbours and be with you into whatever future you choose as allies and partners,” he said.
Few Greenlandic politicians came. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen declined, and no cabinet ministers attended. Naaja Nathanielsen, one of two Greenlandic MPs in the Danish parliament, also turned down the invitation. “I think that right now it’s about sending signals,” she told the BBC.
Landry, a close Trump ally and the governor of Louisiana, drew criticism for arriving without an official invitation while talks continue over the crisis Trump’s bid for control of the island set off. He travelled to Nuuk for a business summit but spent little time there, and some Greenlanders refused meetings. He told the local paper Sermitsiaq that “Greenland could have an equally good or even better economy as an independent country.” Asked whether Trump would respect Greenland’s red lines on sovereignty, he replied: “There is only one line for us. It is red, white and blue.”
Landry flew home on Wednesday evening and was due to meet Trump on Thursday, the BBC understands. The White House shared no details, but a spokesperson said the United States “is optimistic that we are on a good trajectory to address US national security interests in Greenland.”
The security question
Trump has repeatedly pointed to Greenland’s importance for US national security. There were 17 American bases there at the height of the Cold War, and now there is one. In April, a US Northern Command spokesperson told the BBC that improvements to Pituffik Space Base were being studied, and that “consideration of other sites such as Narsarsuaq and Kangerlussuaq” was under discussion.
Greenland’s leader suggested this week that the working group was making progress. A New York Times report on Monday, though, described deep concern on the Greenlandic side about encroachment on sovereignty. According to that report, the US wants its troops allowed to stay indefinitely and wants the power to veto major investments, to keep China and Russia out. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due to meet NATO allies in Sweden on Friday, where the region’s security was expected to come up.
