“Nothing about us, without us,” is the headline of the long-awaited strategy. Among much else, it looks for partners in Arctic North America and in China.
On Wednesday February 21st, Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Independence, held a televised press conference. She thanked the TV-station for the cooperation before she gave a short but content-rich speech, all in Greenlandic. She then sat down with government partners to sign an important document: Greenland’s new foreign policy strategy.
Originally scheduled for publication in 2021, the strategy had been long under way. Internal disagreements in the country have delayed it but now that it is here, Greenland has a new set of goals for the years 2024 until 2033.
The document itself contains 12 different sections with titles such as ‘The Arctic Council’, ‘The Climate and the Sea’, ‘USA’, ‘Iceland’, ‘Canada’, ‘East Asia’, and, interestingly, ‘Arctic North American Forum’.
One remark during the press conference, perhaps, summed up the goal of the strategy best: “We are working to achieve independence, and achieving independence means being able to take on every challenge,” Vivian Motzfeldt said.
Awaited in Denmark
But in a country of great size and low population like Greenland not all challenges can be handled alone, Vivian Motzfeldt stressed. Greenland seeks cooperation. Even with Denmark, the country that Greenland eventually wants to break away from.
“The world is changing. The country we have worked with for many years – Denmark – we will continue to work with in matters of preparedness and security,” Vivian Motzfeldt said.
In Denmark, too, the desire to cooperate is high. Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, has been calling for Greenland to release the strategy at regular intervals. Without it, Denmark cannot form its own Arctic policy and for some time has been the only Arctic country without one.
But he also stressed the importance of Greenlandic influence on its own foreign policy. When asked about the coming strategy in Denmark’s parliament back in November, he said that he was waiting for it “respectfully”.
“The main reason – with a small Faroese exception – that the Kingdom of Denmark is an Arctic state is that Greenland is an Arctic country,” Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, recognizing the importance of Greenland’s new foreign policy strategy for Denmark’s own Arctic strategy.
North American cooperation
But while Greenland’s continued cooperation with Denmark appears to be somewhat out of duty, other possible partnerships in the strategy seem to have more enthusiasm behind them. Particularly cooperation with other Arctic peoples are high on the agenda.
In the section about Canada for instance, the strategy stresses the importance of free movement between North Greenland and North Canada, as has been the case historically. It encourages Canada to open a general consulate in Nuuk, and, not least, it announces the establishment of a Greenlandic permanent representation in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
In the section about the USA, which also stresses the importance of security and trade, the strategy makes sure to mention Greenland’s Inuit compatriots in Alaska. With Alaska, even though it is far away, Greenland hopes to develop cooperation in the areas of mining and education.
Most notable, though, is the section titled ‘Arctic North American Forum’. This is a new forum that Greenland seeks to establish between parliaments and governments in Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik and Greenland itself.
The new forum would share knowledge and experiences on a range of issues: Climate change and its effects on roads and buildings, changes to snow, ice, and fauna, social and health issues, as well as potentials in natural resources, education, research and much else.
“We all hail from the Arctic and in many ways our challenges are the same, just as our opportunities for development are,” the strategy reads.
Arctic should remain low-tension
In the same ‘East Asia’ section another interesting tidbit was revealed. With Japan, Greenland looks to establish a cooperation on ‘peace research’, which has become a speciality in Japan since World War II.
Now, in order to keep the Arctic a low-tension area, Greenland is looking to learn, a wish that was also expressed by Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
Perhaps because of Russia’s recent isolation, perhaps because of an admission of Greenland’s very small size in terms of geopolitics, this topic was also on the agenda at the press conference in Nuuk.
“We have a wish that Greenland should always remain a low-tension area. Maybe it can be stated shortly: We have never had a war in Greenland, we don’t have war in our hearts and we have no plans of participating in a war,” Vivian Motzfeldt said.
Greenland’s new foreign policy document [only available in Danish and Greenlandic] can be downloaded here.
Ole Ellekrog, Polar Journal
