LONDON — Hundreds of individuals thronged the snowy streets of the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk on Saturday to have their say on a transatlantic disaster that has shaken the 76-year-old NATO alliance.
“Greenland for Greenlanders,” “Our land, not yours,” and “Yankee go residence” had been among the many indicators held aloft by marchers, accompanied by a plethora of red-and-white Greenlandic flags.
The 56,000 Greenlanders who inhabit the world’s largest island — which is an autonomous territory throughout the Kingdom of Denmark — have discovered themselves on the heart of a geopolitical storm, as U.S. President Donald Trump wages an escalating stress marketing campaign to accumulate the territory regardless of intense opposition from Greenlanders, Danes and America’s NATO allies.
Folks attend a protest towards President Donald Trump’s demand that the Arctic island be ceded to the U.S., calling for it to be allowed to find out its personal future, in entrance of the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, January 17, 2026.
Marko Djurica/Reuters
The message of the weekend march in Nuuk was clear. However many Greenlanders concern that their voices are being misplaced within the transatlantic furor, Pele Broberg — the chief of the pro-independence Naleraq celebration — informed ABC Information.
“We’re at present being caught in broader political conflicts pushed by opposition to Donald Trump, as a result of we’re only a stepping stone between the Europeans and the Individuals,” Broberg stated.
“All people is busy and stepping on Greenland to make some extent that Donald Trump is a nasty man,” he added. “I am not a pro-Trump man. I am not professional something with the U.S. almost about how they’re dealing with this case.”
‘Territories have no rights’
Naleraq is the second-largest celebration and the official opposition in Greenland’s parliament. Whereas Greenlandic political events have agreed on independence as a shared eventual objective, Naleraq is extensively seen as pushing for a extra fast breakaway from Denmark. The celebration can also be thought of by observers to be probably the most open to U.S. cooperation.
Broberg was clear that he considers Copenhagen not less than partly accountable for the disaster engulfing Greenland. “The issue is that everyone talked concerning the Greenlandic individuals with out the Greenlandic individuals,” he stated.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has repeatedly stated that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders and that no resolution on the island’s future will be made with out their settlement. However Broberg stated that the framing of Trump’s bid to accumulate Greenland as an assault on Denmark has sown confusion.
Pele Broberg, the chief of the Greenlandic political celebration Naleraq, speaks in an interview throughout a go to to Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 7, 2026.
Tom Little/Reuters
“Both Greenland really belongs to the Greenlandic individuals, or it’s handled as a part of the Danish Kingdom. In observe, it can’t be each,” he stated. Copenhagen, he stated, “has managed to marginalize the Greenlandic authorities … They’ve managed to make it a matter of the Danish Kingdom and never the Greenlandic individuals.”
“Territories have no rights — peoples have rights,” Broberg added.
Broberg stated he believes there may be “little doubt” that the Danish authorities is utilizing the present disaster to undermine the objective of Greenlandic independence, utilizing the specter of U.S. domination as a foil.
The Greenlandic authorities — at present led by the Demokraatit celebration — and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen have made clear they haven’t any intention of becoming a member of the U.S.
“If we’ve to decide on between the US and Denmark right here and now, we select Denmark,” Nielsen stated throughout a press convention earlier this month. “Greenland doesn’t wish to be owned by the US. Greenland doesn’t wish to be ruled by the US. Greenland doesn’t wish to be a part of the US.”
The subsequent common election in Greenland is scheduled for 2029, the 12 months Trump’s second time period ends.
Amid Trump’s threats, the leaders of all 5 political events holding seats in Greenland’s parliament additionally launched a joint assertion. “We don’t wish to be Individuals, we don’t wish to be Danes, we wish to be Greenlanders,” they stated.
A bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation traveled to Denmark final weekend in a bid to reassure Danes and Greenlanders of their assist. Delegation chief Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, stated at an occasion in Copenhagen, “I hope that the individuals of the Kingdom of Denmark don’t abandon their religion within the American individuals.”
Broberg, whose celebration positioned second in final 12 months’s elections with 24% of the vote, urged there had been a harmful lack of communication between Nuuk and Washington.
Danish troopers throughout capturing observe at an undisclosed location in Greenland, January 18, 2026.
Simon Elbeck/Forsvaret/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“The issue is that they’re reacting out of panic quite than having a transparent technique,” Broberg stated of the Greenlandic authorities. “I inspired them final 12 months, earlier than the elections, to truly go to talk to the U.S. representatives. However they did not wish to do this as a result of they felt insulted by the best way they had been talked about.”
‘This began with Trump’
Trump first raised the prospect of buying the minerals-rich island in his first time period. Frederiksen at the moment dismissed the proposal as “absurd.”
President Joe Biden’s administration additionally confirmed a eager curiosity in Greenland, although it engaged in a softer strategy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the island in 2021 and informed reporters he was there “as a result of the US deeply values our partnership and desires to make it even stronger.”
His journey adopted bilateral successes in 2020 — earlier than Trump left workplace — that noticed the U.S. reopen its Nuuk consulate, develop cooperation on the American Thule Air Base, since renamed because the Pituffik House Base, and comply with a brand new financial collaboration technique.
Broberg stated it’s clear that Greenland is a part of the long-term, bipartisan U.S. strategic image. However the disaster over the island’s sovereignty, he stated, “began with Donald Trump.”
“We’re not a pro-Trump or pro-U.S. celebration,” he stated. “We’re a pro-Greenland celebration. We do not tolerate something of what got here out of the American president’s mouth almost about Greenland and its individuals’s rights.”
Broberg, a former Greenlandic international minister, urged dialogue. “It’s important to work this downside, not change into the issue,” he stated.
An indication studying “Greenland is just not on the market” is pictured exterior of a clothes store in Nuuk, Greenland, on Jan. 19, 2026.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Nonetheless, Broberg acknowledged that the state of affairs “has escalated to a degree the place easy options are now not obtainable,” citing the brewing transatlantic commerce struggle. “I do not see a approach out of this that does not contain an election in Greenland.”
Broberg stated Naleraq foresees a free affiliation settlement with Denmark twinned with a defense-and security-agreement with the U.S., beneath which Washington would acquire unique rights to army operations on the island.
“Beneath the present protection settlement, the U.S. doesn’t maintain full army exclusivity over Greenland,” he stated, referring to the 1951 Greenland Protection Settlement that gave the U.S. army entry throughout the island. “That is why you possibly can see that Donald Trump appeared on the stationing of troops this week as an escalation, as a provocation.”
Broberg additionally stated Naleraq has mentioned the formation of a Greenlandic coast guard — with personnel probably numbering within the low 1000’s — to assist guard Greenland’s 27,000-mile shoreline.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed ideas {that a} bigger U.S. army footprint on Greenland can handle his purported considerations over Russian and Chinese language presence within the Excessive North. “I might put a whole lot of troopers there proper now if I need. However you want greater than that. You want possession,” he informed reporters aboard Air Pressure One this month.
Nonetheless, Broberg stated his celebration is “genuinely ” in working with the U.S. on safety and commerce. “We’re, from a political standpoint, seeking to be globalist. We’re a free commerce nation. We do not impose tariffs on anyone, it doesn’t matter what,” he stated.
Requested if he was at present in contact with the Trump administration, Broberg replied, “In no way.”
Folks march throughout a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix by way of AP)
The Related Press
Trump has been dismissive of Greenland’s prime minister. After Nielsen stated the island wouldn’t be a part of the U.S., Trump informed reporters, “That is their downside. I disagree with him. I do not know who he’s. Do not know something about him, however that is going to be a giant downside for him.”
Subs within the fjords
Trump’s reasoning for wanting “full and whole management” of Greenland is the purported menace posed by Russia and China within the Arctic.
NATO allies have stated they agree that regional army capabilities and readiness ought to be bolstered. Final 12 months, Copenhagen introduced a $6.5 billion Arctic protection package deal in response to U.S. criticism that it had didn’t adequately defend Greenland.
And final week, eight NATO nations despatched small contingents of troops to Greenland for what they stated had been army workout routines. In an interview early this week, Broberg was fiercely essential of what he described as that “very silly” transfer, saying he felt it might be interpreted as “an escalation” by the U.S.
Automobiles drive down a avenue within the metropolis heart, January 16, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland.
Sean Gallup/Getty Photographs
Broberg additionally stated it was a mistake to ship the troops to Nuuk and Greenland’s west coast. “The Russians are on the east coast, they’re within the northeast,” he stated.
“In the event that they actually needed to placate the US … they need to put them on the northeast coast the place no person lives,” Broberg added.
Requested whether or not the Russian-Chinese language menace to Greenland was real or concocted, Broberg replied, “I believe the reality is someplace in between … You do not have smoke with out some hearth.”
However he famous that searching events — touring over the frozen terrain shortly and quietly on dogsleds, a mode of transport Trump appeared to mock when criticizing Danish army capabilities in Greenland — “have, every so often, reported seeing submarines close to the coast or fjords.”
“We have now by no means been informed what sort of subs there are. However the presumption is Russian subs. So there may be some reality to it. But when it is crawling with them, or if it is one each 10 years — I don’t know.”
