A plowed asphalt road outside Sisimiut, Greenland, Monday, March 31, 2025.
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Greenland is in the midst of a geopolitical firestorm as US President Donald Trump escalates his threat to annex the autonomous Danish territory.
But while President Trump has said the United States needs the giant Arctic island for national security and European leaders have responded that security is a collective effort, independence for the island of just 57,000 people remains a long-term goal.
Opinion polls show that while an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose U.S. rule, an overwhelming majority support independence from Denmark.
The White House said President Trump and his national security team are “actively” discussing the possibility of purchasing Greenland, and while diplomacy is the first option, all options are on the table, including military force.
“For many years, the majority of Greenlanders have been fighting for representation,” pro-independence lawmaker Arja Chemnitz, one of two members of the Danish parliament who represents Greenland, told CNBC by video call.
“Nothing is about us without us, which is why it is important that we continue to fight to ensure we have more autonomy going forward,” she added.
“The United States was a very close ally until just a year ago,” Chemnitz said, adding that Greenlanders “want to make sure we are not dehumanized, and I think we have been in this whole situation.”
“Greenland has never been for sale and never will be for sale,” she added. “People are resilient. And I think it’s important to remember that, of course, you can’t buy a country, but you can’t buy a population either.”
Greenland was granted greater autonomy over its affairs under the 2009 Home Rule Act, through a motion giving the island the right to hold an independence referendum. However, Denmark remains responsible for foreign, defense and security policy.
Lawmakers submitted a draft constitution for Greenland’s independence in 2023, but there were no immediate plans to adopt it.
Indeed, most political parties in Greenland support independence, but they disagree on when and how to achieve it. Indeed, the independence movement has become a balancing act between the island’s ultimate goal of self-determination and the need for Danish financial support for essential welfare services such as health care and education.
In January last year, Greenland’s then Prime Minister Moute Egede said it was time to take the next step towards independence. His successor, Jens Frederik Nielsen, who led the centre-right Democratic Party to an unexpected victory in last March’s parliamentary elections, favors a more gradual path.
Kemnitz, an Inuit Attakatigit member and Greenland Commission chairman, told CNBC that promoting independence for the Arctic island is a long-term goal because “good economic conditions” are needed to maintain living standards.
Trump previously sought to purchase Greenland during his first term as US president in 2019, only to be told the island was not for sale.
Now, the prospect of US military action in Greenland has provoked a strong reaction in Denmark, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning that a US attack would mean the end of the NATO military alliance.
On March 29, 2025, in Copenhagen, Denmark, approximately 1,500 demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy to denounce U.S. pressure on Greenland and Denmark and to denounce the U.S. government’s controversial visit to Greenland.
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The issue has raised alarm in Europe, especially given President Trump’s renewed interest in the aftermath of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela to oust the country’s President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he intends to meet with Danish officials to discuss the Arctic island.
President Trump’s takeover threat
Clayton Allen, practice director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said as with many externally governed territories, there will always be a political desire for independence.
“I don’t know if pressure from the United States for more sovereign control of Greenland will necessarily be what the United States wants,” Allen told CNBC in a video call.
“Simply put, I don’t know if people want to trade one foreign power for another. If they want independence, they want independence,” he added.
Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said outside observers should tread carefully when assessing the impact of Trump’s takeover threat on Greenland’s independence movement.
He told CNBC that the movement “has been going on for decades” and that he has obtained a promise from the Danish government to respect the outcome of the independence referendum.
Svendsen added that there is a feeling in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, that President Trump’s “blatant attempt to bring Greenland closer to the United States” will undermine its prospects for independence, and that “one of the Nuuk government’s best cards is to rely on Danish deterrence.”
