A journey to Greenland: the 51st state? – podcast | Greenland

In 2019, when Donald Trump first raised the prospect of the US buying Greenland, few folks took it critically. However in the present day, at the beginning of his second time period as president, when Trump says “I feel we’re going to have it”, his phrases ring alarm bells.

To search out out why the world’s largest island is of such enduring curiosity to Trump, Miranda Bryant, the Guardian’s Nordic correspondent, lately travelled to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. There, she tells Helen Pidd, Greenlanders are properly conscious of the minerals and strategic worth that their island holds, particularly because the altering local weather is accelerating superpower competitors within the Arctic.

Miranda additionally learns that Trump’s consideration is properly timed, as after a sequence of scandals Greenlanders are more and more contemplating their relationship with Denmark and the prospect of independence. And the US isn’t any stranger to the island, with a army base and heat relations that stretch again to the second world battle.

Nonetheless, whereas Greenland is clearly on the frontline of Trump’s expansionist second-term ambitions, if Greenlanders are to have a say in their very own future, Miranda believes they’re much extra more likely to go for a type of cooperation somewhat than their island being “purchased or offered” by anybody.