Greenlanders are expressing anxiety as their vast, semi-autonomous territory becomes the focus of high-level talks between the U.S. and Denmark. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Danish officials next week, following President Donald Trump’s stated national security interest in the island. Many residents, still marked by past colonization, fear external control and desire to be left in peace.
In the capital Nuuk, reactions ranged from a pensioner emphatically rejecting any U.S. flag in Greenland to a young artisan expressing weariness with Trump’s rhetoric. While most of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants oppose a U.S. takeover and many favor eventual independence from Denmark, they also rely on Danish subsidies. There is a growing desire among Greenlanders for greater autonomy in both domestic and foreign policy.
