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So I thought, well, let's get some reaction from Greenland itself
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So first of all, let's speak to Vitas Kwiatkitsuk, who is the former Minister of Finance and Nordic Cooperation of Greenland
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Vitas, very good morning to you. Thank you for joining us. How seriously are you taking these threats
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I think the daily events concerning Greenland shows the importance of Greenland
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that Greenland is an important venue not only for the Arctic but also for the U.S. military presence in the Arctic
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And I think we need to look at it in that context that Greenland matters
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and that Greenland is important for the security in the Arctic and also for the U.S
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well i can understand that it absolutely is of great strategic importance but surely in normal
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times if the united states wanted to increase its military presence and maybe build more bases on
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then they can do that if they talk to the greenland government and presumably the danish government
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um to negotiate a deal but that's not what they're doing here is it well you have to look at it in
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terms of that we didn't have a government for a long period while this happened. So there has been
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a vacuum of time with no more people in the power of Greenland. And there has been no leadership
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because of the elections. So in that sense, there has been no official response. But because of
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how things have erupted since January when Donald Trump became or came to power. I think
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there has been a little response from Greenland developing this farce
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into a state where I think it's irresponsible because it's no longer a question of US
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I think you have to look at it in terms of what MAGA US is doing and what the official
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US is doing. I think there are two quite distinctive objectives that we need to separate in terms of who is
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doing what. Of course, Donald Trump is the spearhead of the MAGA in the U.S., and that's what happened in Greenland, that there has been representatives of this certain interest group trying to influence things in Greenland
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And I think it a very dangerous approach that they have done disturbing the peace in Greenland but also disrupting the democracy of what the people of Greenland
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ought to do or ought to say in terms of our relations to the US
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It's been a very uncertain time for us with this interference. How much of this do you think is about security
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genuinely about security, and how much is it about minerals? Well, of course, security matters
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Since 1941, U.S. has had military bases in Greenland, so it's a genuine thing that the U.S. is present in Greenland
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But we all know that the focus on Arctic has been increasing for the past 20 years
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And I think that the United States and Denmark has been very slow on accepting the fact that the Arctic has become more focal in terms of geopolitics on the aspirations of China in the Arctic and the presence of Russia
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Russia covers a great deal of Arctic. So in that sense, there is no peculiar thing for them to increase their military presence in the Arctic
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But I think Greenland has been neglected in terms of de-escalating the threats of China
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but also to face what Russia has of military power in the Arctic
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I think it's a response to the lack of development in military sense
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That is the reason why Donald Trump is responding, perhaps not very timely
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Forgive me for interrupting, but Vitas, you don't seem very angry about Donald Trump's behaviour and threats
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How much do you reflect the population of Greenland? Well, of course, there is a huge public cry and uncertainty on how Donald Trump is behaving
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And we don't accept the attempts on buying Greenland. you have to mind that the people are very proud of being Greenlanders
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and that we don't accept any interference in our leadership in Greenland
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politically or economically or militarily of course we accept the presence of US in Greenland
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But we are not fond of being objectives for any trade of being trying to be purchased by anyone Vitas Kwiatkitsuk thank you very much indeed for joining us
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Vitas is a former Minister of Finance and Nordic Cooperation for Greenland
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Let's get another perspective from Carsten Sommer, retired journalist for KNR Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation
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Carsten, very good morning to you. If you gave the people of Greenland a choice of independence for Greenland
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remaining effectively a colony of Denmark or becoming a 51st United States state
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which would they go for? They would go for independence connected to Denmark, surely
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I remember I was hosting the news that morning when Trump first in 2019
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wanted to buy Greenland. And the shock at 7 o'clock in the morning when we presented the news
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was all over the country. People didn't believe their own ears. Now it has come back, so we were a little prepared
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But I participated in a big demonstration two weeks ago here in Anouk
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where more than 3,000 people of our population here in Nuk, 15,000 people, went to say
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we don't want to be bought by the U.S. It's a totally crazy thought for people
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because all dreams have been connected to doing greener and more independent
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as a state in the future to have more influence on your own life
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And we also know how the indigenous people of Alaska has been treated for many years
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So there's no one. I think Paul said 6% saying yes, and 84% saying no to that offer
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What is the relationship between Greenland and Denmark? I mean, how much influence, how much power does Denmark have over Greenland
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Well, they have a lot of power, but, you know, we have had home rule since 1979 and more since 2009
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we have been ruling a lot of things and planning to take more things to be treated here in Greenland
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But Denmark has the police and the foreign policy. And so that's a part where Greenland wants to have more influence too
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And is Greenland formally part of NATO because of its relationship with Denmark Yes we are part of Denmark and therefore we are a part of NATO and all the Trump talk about protecting us and that we are open
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We are a part of NATO. So we have the protection that he wants to give us
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But his talk also about lots of Chinese and Russian ships sailing around, that's not true
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Simply that he is lying in our own, up in our face
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And what was the reaction from Greenlanders to the visit of J.D. Vance
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we love this dog sledge run that was taking place yesterday in sisemiot and suddenly
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the the gd vance wife said that she would attempt that and then his husband suddenly would join too
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and we don't have any government just now. Since yesterday we have a government
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but we have just had an election and there were plannings of doing a new government
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So they came at a time where there was no one to say hello to them
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No one had invited them except a local American so we were very
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worried about this suddenly two Hercules bombers aeroplanes came
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and opened up and four big black cars with shoot proof glasses
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came out we have never seen that kind of cars here. They were coming out of the plane
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and driving through the town. It was like a nightmare to see those cars
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But when they ended up cancelling the visit, we all looked at the cars
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driving back into the Hercules flights and fly away, and we all were applauding
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Yeah. So it was almost as if the cars had tails between their legs
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That's what we would say. Carsten, thank you very much indeed. That's Carsten Sommer there from KNR
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Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation. Give me your views on this, because I can't really conceive
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that Donald Trump's administration could really formally annex Greenland. I mean, it would certainly be against international law
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if they tried it. But what would the consequences of that be for NATO, for peace in the world, for just the general international order
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It's almost unthinkable, isn't it
