President Trump is preparing to offer financial support to Greenland as part of an effort to blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic, according to a U.S. diplomat.
“The U.S. government is working on a substantial package of economic support funds to help jump-start growth in Greenland,” U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands wrote in an opinion column carried by Danish media.
The offer evokes the controversy last year over Trump’s reported interest in purchasing Greenland from Denmark, which holds sovereignty over the self-governing territory. Danish officials rejected the idea, but the United States remains eager to forestall any effort by global rivals to establish a “bridgehead” in the North Atlantic.
“The United States and the Trump Administration are setting out to wake the West up from our collective complacency before other less trustworthy governments shape the values of the region after their own repressive image,” Sands wrote this week.
The impending economic support offer could help U.S. officials jostle China away from Greenland’s shores. Sands also highlighted the Trump administration’s interest in aiding the Faroe Islands, another autonomous territory under Denmark’s aegis.
“For the first time in over thirty years, a U.S. naval vessel visited the Faroe Islands in 2019, signaling our wish to grow our security relationship and our economic and scientific cooperation,” Sands wrote.
Beijing has pressured the Faroe Islands authorities to partner with Huawei in the construction of its 5G wireless infrastructure, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Western allies that Chinese Communist spies will have backdoors into the company’s next generation wireless networks.
“The United States will also continue to build bridges between Greenlanders, Faroese, and Americans through exchange programs that build educational and professional skills to spur economic development – all to increase the resilience of Arctic and subarctic communities,” Sands wrote.
The U.S. envoy’s column drew mixed responses in Copenhagen, where Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen last year angered Trump by deriding the idea of a sale as “absurd.” Another Danish lawmaker said that Sands’s idea “clearly crossed the line,” implying that the American diplomat is trying to drive a wedge between Denmark and Greenland.
Greenland’s foreign minister dismissed the idea of a sale last year but noted that the world’s largest island is “open for business.”
Sands emphasized that the U.S. can expand that business. “In the years ahead, the United States can help Greenland reach its great potential, open up new markets, increase sustainable tourism, and set new standards for development in the region,” she wrote. “Even as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western world can no longer overlook the Arctic’s importance, in terms of its unique and changing environment, its strategic location, and its potential.”
