Danish territory's election dominated by Donald Trump's comments

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Greenlanders are going to the polls in an election which has been dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to make the Arctic territory part of the United States. The comments fired up Greenland’s long-standing push for independence from Denmark which has controlled the territory for about 300 years.

Transcript

00:00Even here in Denmark, an election in Greenland wouldn't normally get this much attention,

00:07but of course this year is different.

00:09The whole world is watching, and that's because of one man, Donald Trump.

00:14President Trump has had this long-term obsession with acquiring Greenland.

00:19Back in 2019, he offered to buy Greenland from Denmark.

00:24The Danish Prime Minister at the time slapped down that idea, and many people saw it as

00:29a bit of a joke, but no one's laughing now.

00:32The President has since doubled down on that commitment to acquiring Greenland.

00:38He hasn't ruled out the possibility of using force, and recently he said that the US would

00:44get Greenland one way or the other, which many people have seen as a rather ominous

00:49threat both in Greenland and here in Denmark.

00:53Now the reason that he wants it, well there are a few reasons that Donald Trump wants

00:57Greenland.

00:58Fundamentally, because of its geographic and strategic location, it lies smack bang

01:03between the US and Russia.

01:06But it's also got this wealth of critical minerals, these rare earth minerals that are

01:12essential to green energy technologies, and which at the moment, China controls the vast

01:18majority of.

01:19But the possibility of Greenland actually becoming part of the United States is extremely

01:24low.

01:25The vast majority of Greenlanders don't want to be a part of the United States, but this

01:29has thrust the issue of independence from Denmark into the heart of this election.

01:37Now Greenlanders have been able to hold a referendum on independence since 2009, but

01:42they haven't done so primarily because at the moment Denmark provides this block grant

01:47of about a billion Australian dollars, which is about half of the Greenlandic budget, funds

01:53things like education and healthcare, and they're concerned of course that the quality

01:57of life that they have at the moment would decline if they secede from Denmark.

02:03So while many people in Greenland are not wanting to be a part of the United States,

02:08they are hoping that this attention that Donald Trump has brought to the territory could give

02:14them some leverage in the discussions that they're having, the negotiations, about the

02:18kind of support that they might be able to get if they do eventually vote for independence.

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