IN recent days and weeks, Greenland and the Greenlandic people have been brutally thrown onto the grand political stage.
 
The almost 57,000 inhabitants and their large island are being turned into a bargaining chip, a pawn that can be moved around at will on the great chessboard of imperialism.
 
Under huge media attention, the president-elect’s son made a lightning “tourist visit” to Nuuk on Tuesday, and in a well-organised propaganda show in Greenland and from Trump’s residence in Florida, it was made clear that the future US president is ready to play his trump card. He did not reject the idea of using economic or military force to get his hands on Greenland.

During the press conference, a journalist asked: “Can you assure the world that while you are trying to get control of those areas (Greenland, Panama, ed.), you will not use military or economic force?”
 
“No,” Trump interrupts.
 
The journalist continues: “Can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is? Will you negotiate a new treaty?”
 
“No, I can’t assure you ... you’re talking about Panama and Greenland ... I can’t assure you of either. But I can tell you this: We need them for economic security.”
 
In front of rolling cameras, the future president of the US  — not Vladimir Putin — made obvious military and economic threats against Greenland and the Danish Royal Federation.
 
What was Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s response? “The US is Denmark’s most important ally. Today’s discussion does not change that.”
 
It is an unprecedented, absurd and thoroughly neocolonialist drama that Greenland has been thrown into.
 
The Prime Minister of Greenlandic Mute Egede and several Greenlandic politicians have made it clear that Greenland is not for sale. After the Trump press conference on Tuesday January 7, Egede repeated what he also said in his new year’s speech, namely that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” and unlike Frederiksen, he called Trump’s comments “serious statements.”
 
Within a few months, elections to the Greenlandic parliament Inatsisartut will be held. The question of independence was already high on the political agenda before the developments of recent days. It is not unrealistic to imagine a referendum in Greenland on independence in the foreseeable future.

According to the self-government agreement that regulates Greenland’s relationship with the Danish Royal Federation, the Danish parliament must subsequently approve this.
 
With the self-government agreement, Denmark has officially recognised that Greenland is a people in its own right under international law. Nevertheless, the mindset of colonialism runs deep in the minds of those in power in Denmark. Some politicians won’t even guarantee that they will nod yes if a Greenlandic decision on independence comes to a vote in the Danish parliament.
 
On a more structural level, Greenland is still excluded from several forums and contexts where decisions affecting Greenland are made. Individual cases such as the outrageous IUD/coil scandal, which Egede has called genocide against the Greenlandic people, are examples of how colonialism is not a thing belonging to a distant past.
 
The tone-deafness and arrogance of the Danish government make it more than understandable that independence is gaining more and more importance on Greenland’s political agenda. With their attitude and policies, the Danish rulers are themselves jeopardising the Danish Royal Federation.
 
The Danish state’s centuries-long mistreatment of Greenland and the feeling of being looked down upon and exploited that it has caused is now being abused by the future US president and those around him to advocate for Greenland’s independence, naturally with the purpose of taking over where Danish colonialism and imperialism ends.
 
Trump has already labelled Canada as a possible new US state; to the south, he has demanded the Panama Canal be returned to the US; under the guise of fighting drugs and drug cartels, he has escalated his rhetoric against Mexico; and then there is Greenland.
 
From the vantage point of the ailing US empire, the globe looks like there are a number of states and important facilities around the empire, on its periphery. Could they somehow be connected more closely? Or can the threat of this be used as a bargaining chip when it comes to economic and political agreements?
 
Seen from the Danish capital, the obvious situation is that if Denmark “loses Greenland,” our small country will also lose almost all foreign and security policy importance in the Nato alliance.
 
Seen from the Greenlandic capital Nuuk, the difficult situation is that when Greenland is made a pawn in a geopolitical imperialist game about the control of waterways, resources and so on, it becomes extremely hard to choose your own path and defend it.
 
Greenlanders’ right to determine their own future must be unreservedly supported and any form of interference, blackmail and bribery to which they are subjected must be condemned — whether it comes from the US or Denmark or anywhere else.
 
The focus must be on finding ways for Greenlanders to be able to enforce their right to national self-determination in real and practical terms.