Canada Signals Support for Greenland as Trump Revives Takeover Talk

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA

Canada’s Indigenous governor general and its foreign minister will travel to Greenland in early February in a move underscoring Ottawa’s support for Danish sovereignty in the Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday, as renewed comments from U.S. President Donald Trump about taking control of the island reverberate across allied capitals.

Carney said Governor General Mary Simon and Foreign Minister Anita Anand are expected to visit the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, where Canada plans to formally open a new consulate. The visit comes at a sensitive moment, after Trump again argued that the United States should take control of Greenland, a self-governing Inuit territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and after he previously floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.

“The future of Greenland and Denmark are decided solely by the people of Denmark,” Carney said during a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at Canada’s embassy in Paris, where both leaders were attending high-level talks on Ukraine.

Anand later posted a video of the meeting on social media, saying she would travel to Nuuk in the coming weeks to officially open Canada’s consulate. She described the move as a concrete step to strengthen Canada’s engagement with Greenland and to support Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including the Arctic island.

Greenland, where roughly 80 percent of the landmass lies above the Arctic Circle, has a population of about 56,000 people, most of them Inuit. The territory has broad self-governing powers but remains part of the Danish realm, which is responsible for defense and foreign affairs.

Mary Simon, who became Canada’s first Indigenous governor general in 2021, is of Inuk descent and previously served as Canada’s ambassador to Denmark. As governor general, she represents King Charles III, Canada’s head of state, reflecting the country’s constitutional ties to the British Crown and its place in the Commonwealth.

The Canadian visit also comes amid a coordinated show of European and allied support for Greenland. On Tuesday, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Frederiksen in publicly defending Greenland’s sovereignty following Trump’s remarks. In a joint statement, they reaffirmed that the strategically important and mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people.”

Frederiksen and Carney are both in Paris for meetings of the so-called coalition of the willing, focused on Ukraine’s security and the broader European response to Russia’s war. Carney made a point of meeting separately with Frederiksen and with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ahead of those talks, highlighting Canada’s desire to emphasize Arctic security alongside its commitments in Europe.

“You have been very clear in your statements when it comes to respect for national sovereignty,” Frederiksen said to Carney during their meeting. “We are both committed to securing the Arctic region, and together with all our NATO allies we can secure the region, so hopefully everybody is willing to work together.”

Despite those assurances, tensions remain. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should become part of the United States, brushing aside Frederiksen’s warning that any U.S. takeover would effectively mark the end of NATO. Trump has repeatedly argued that U.S. control of Greenland is necessary to safeguard the alliance’s northern flank amid growing strategic competition with China and Russia in the Arctic.

“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, citing military and security considerations in the rapidly changing polar region.

Carney, who has made Arctic security a central theme of his foreign policy agenda, said Canada is working within NATO to address emerging threats in the north but acknowledged that more needs to be done. “We are making progress within NATO, but we have to do more,” he said earlier in Paris.

Analysts say Canada’s decision to send senior representatives to Greenland is a carefully calibrated signal. Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the visit reflects both geographic realities and political principles.

“It is vital for Canada partly because we are a major Arctic country and Greenland is our neighbor, and partly because we have a strong incentive to stand for international law and against bullying and aggression,” Béland said.

At the same time, he noted that Carney faces a delicate diplomatic balance. Canada and the United States are deeply intertwined economically, and negotiations over their free trade agreement are set to intensify later this year.

“Carney wants to show solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland without directly provoking the U.S. president,” Béland said. “It’s a tough balancing act for the prime minister.”

The upcoming visit by Simon and Anand is likely to be closely watched, both in the Arctic and beyond, as Canada positions itself as a defender of sovereignty and stability in a region growing ever more central to global security and geopolitics.