This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. “Lord, I Am at Your Door” by Rola Azar.
As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, he is paying more attention to foreign policy and has said he wants to make America greater, as in larger. On Sunday, Trump posted a message online — this was his Christmas message — saying the United States should take ownership of Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark. Trump wrote, quote, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Trump’s statement on Greenland was made as he announced he was picking PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
But Greenland is not for sale. That was the message from Greenland’s prime minister, who responded, quote, “Our country’s sovereignty and independence are not negotiable. Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” he said.
Trump has also recently talked about reclaiming the Panama Canal, which we’ll talk about more in a few minutes, as well as annexing Canada, and even possibly a so-called soft invasion of Mexico.
Well, we’re going to start in Greenland. We’re joined in Denmark by Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic citizen and member of the Danish Parliament.
Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. Can you respond to what President-elect Trump is saying once again? And talk about — you were a member of the Danish Parliament back when he was president and he talked about taking Greenland.
AAJA CHEMNITZ: Thank you.
I have been representing Greenland in the Danish Parliament for almost 10 years, and I was a member of the Parliament back then, as well. I used to be a member of our own Parliament back home in Greenland before that.
And Greenland is not for sale. Greenland has never been for sale. Greenland will never be for sale. And it’s quite clear. The prime minister of Greenland has said that. And we would like to have U.S. engagement. We would like to have collaboration with the U.S. But it’s very clear for us that Greenland is a self-governing country. We have our own Parliament, our own government. And anything, any decision that has to do with Greenland is something that is up to the Greenlandic people. And we have a saying in Greenland, which is, “Nothing about us without us.”
And I think it’s very important both for Trump but also for the U.S. to understand that Greenland has the autonomy for a lot of areas that we’re covering back home in Greenland ourselves. So, I’m representing Greenland on the areas that Denmark is covering in Greenland. So there’s a good and a close collaboration. And, of course, it could be better. That’s the way it is. But I think, in many ways, Greenland is really — you know, we’re taking care of our own business in many ways back home in Greenland.
AMY GOODMAN: So, explain for people what this is all about. I mean, the first time when he was president, he was going to Denmark. He canceled his trip, calling your prime minister at the time, a woman, a “nasty woman” for saying “no” to the possibility of the U.S. taking Greenland.
AAJA CHEMNITZ: It was because she was saying that it was an absurd idea. I still think it’s a crazy idea. And I think it’s, quite honestly, crazy to talk about expanding your empire. You can look at different places in the world right now where people are trying to expand their empire. I think that’s a crazy thing to even talk about.
So, back then, we said we’re open for business, we’re not for sale. That’s the way it is still for Greenland. And Greenland has a lot of autonomy ourselves. And therefore, the decision on what should happen with the future of Greenland is up to the Greenlandic people. And we have our own government, our own Parliament, and the decision is, therefore, something that should be discussed back home in Greenland. But Greenland is not for sale, so it’s not going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the strategic significance of Greenland for the United States. It’s valuable for what? Vast reserves of zinc, copper, iron ore, uranium. Can you talk about how the U.S. and China have competed for these reserves, including uranium?
AAJA CHEMNITZ: We have almost any kind of rare earth minerals that the U.S., but also EU, is looking for. And in many ways, we need investments when it comes to rare earth, but also raw materials. And we have almost any kind of raw materials in Greenland. So, I think it’s about having a collaboration both with Denmark, with EU, but also with the U.S., in order to make sure that we have a stronger position on the market when it comes to rare earth, because right now it’s more or less a monopoly from the Chinese side. And therefore, I think it makes sense to collaborate on rare earth, but also on tourism, on education, on business development in total. I think that would make sense to have a bigger U.S. engagement. But to do it in that sense that Trump, the president-elect, has been doing it has been very disrespectful. So, in many ways, this is really something that the people of Greenland don’t like. And I think, in many ways, it just brings us further away from each other. So I really think we need to have a more diplomatic approach when it comes to collaboration with Greenland, which has a lot of autonomy already and is a self-governing country.
AMY GOODMAN: Aaja Chemnitz, as a member of the Denmark Parliament, can you talk about the Thule Air Base, which is now a space base? The air base was owned by the United States. In 2013, Greenland lifted a ban on mining radioactive materials. How does that all connect?
AAJA CHEMNITZ: Pituffik Space Base was renamed from Thule Air Base a couple of years ago, and it was in respect for the Greenlandic people and the Greenlandic language. We’re an Indigenous community, and in many ways, it’s very important for us to focus on community, family, and then me. And in many other Western communities, it’s the other way around, so it’s me, it’s family, and then community. So I think it’s very important to understand that the Greenlandic way of living can be a little bit different from the Western way of living.
And in many ways, we have a modern good society. We have a lot of welfare. We have a lot of business development in Greenland, but we would like to see much more. We have said no to uranium. This was the last election for the Parliament back home in Greenland. And it was very clear from the voters that we said no to uranium, because it’s an open-pit mine in the backyard of a city where there’s quite a lot of people living there, in South Greenland. But we’re pro-mining. We’re pro-business. We would like to see much more development going on in Greenland, and we would like to see U.S. and EU engagement to a larger extent than what we’re seeing right now.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, we just have 30 seconds, but you’re chair of Arctic parliamentarians. If you can talk about how climate change has impacted Greenland? I mean, earlier this year, a study found Greenland’s ice cap is losing an average of 30 million tons of ice every hour due to the effects of the climate crisis. You have a president-elect now, Trump, who often, at the end of many sentences, will say, “Drill, baby, drill.”
AAJA CHEMNITZ: You know, the climate change is affecting the temperature and the climate in Greenland four times as much as the rest of the world. And so it is in the Arctic, as well. So this is really affecting our everyday life. It’s affecting our hunters, our fishers, which are living off of this. And I think, in many ways, it’s really trying to understand climate change is not something that we have a discussion about is it really real. We know it’s real. We can see it’s real.
And in many ways, I think it’s important to do much more when it comes to the climate. So Greenland has signed up for the Paris Agreement, because we would like to do much more when it comes to a green transition. So, we’re investing in power, hydropower, in Greenland, to name just one example. So, it’s very important for us to have a much more green transition in order to make sure that we are not polluting more than we should do.
AMY GOODMAN: Aaja Chemnitz, I want to thank you for being with us, a member of the Danish Parliament from Greenland.
