Wrestling in Greenland. Denmark, the United States and China in the land of ice

Sources: The Department of the Air Force Arctic Strategy, United States Department of the Air Force, July 2020, www.af.mil; Forsvarsministeriets fremtidige opgaveløsning i Arktis, Danish Ministry of Defence, June 2016, www.ft.dk; websites of the mining projects.

[2] There are only two mines operating on the island. In the coming years, three more may be launched: gold (Canadian), zinc (Australian) and uranium (also Australian). The sector is struggling with: hard-to-reach deposits, a harsh climate, the decreasing profitability of extraction, the lack of a qualified workforce, and infrastructure. In addition, residents are concerned about the negative impact investments have on the environment and local communities.

[9] D. Berger, ‘Marines Will Help Fight Submarines’, United States Naval Institute, November 2020, www.usni.org; H. Conley, N. Tsafos, I. Williams, M. Melino, America’s Arctic Moment: Great Power Competition in the Arctic to 2050, CSIS, 30 March 2020, www.csis.org.

[10] The Danish government deemed the investment to be a security issue lying within Copenhagen’s responsibility. Eventually, Denmark bought some stakes in the Greenlandic company established to operate the airports and provided loans for the project, which de facto eliminated the Chinese bid. This also led to the collapse of the government in Nuuk. D. Hinshaw, J. Page, ‘How the Pentagon Countered China’s Designs on Greenland’, The Wall Street Journal, 10 February 2019, www.wsj.com.

[12] Greenland withdrew from the European Community in 1985. It is associated with the EU as an overseas country and territory.

[13] For Nuuk, it was crucial to establish new rules for tenders to provide services and maintenance for the Thule base, allowing contracts to be awarded exclusively to Greenlandic and Danish companies.

[14] ‘China’s Arctic Policy’, The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, 26 January 2018, english.www.gov.cn.

[15] There were 6 ships between 2012 and 2017, and already 12 between 2018 and 2019. Based on the data from the Centre for High North Logistics, www.chnl.no.

[16] In 2016, a Chinese mining company tried to buy the defunct Danish naval base in Grønnedal.

[19] Opinion polls show that the Greenlandic public is in favour of expanding cooperation with the US (69.1%) and Denmark (68.2%) rather than with China (38.7%). ‘Måling: Ambivalent holdning til Kina’, Sermitsiaq, 18 February 2021, www.sermitsiaq.ag.

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Publish date : 2021-03-02 03:00:00

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