A Trump condominium for Greenland

No, not a tower but a joint sovereignty pact with Denmark.

America has a legitimate national interest in Greenland.

President Trump told “the incredible people of Greenland” on Tuesday that “if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.” If Danish statesmen are canny enough to propose it, there is a solution that would be a win for Denmark and Greenland as well as the U.S. And it might vault Copenhagen to the enviable position of Washington’s closest European partner.

Danish attachment to Greenland rests on history, sentiment and geopolitics. Blunt U.S. overtures to gain sway over Greenland trample all of these, generating a reflexive Danish resistance.

Yet America has a legitimate national interest in Greenland. As an Arctic power and the leading power of the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. has a direct stake in control of the eastern outlet to the increasingly open Northwest Passage. Russia’s assertiveness across the Arctic and China’s self-designation as a “near Arctic” power mean neither Washington nor the rest of the West can ignore the strategic sea lane that passes Greenland. The island’s economic ties with Denmark haven’t fully realised the potential of the land and its people. Freer access to as large a market and investment hub as America would do far more, while giving the U.S. access to stupendous national resources such as rare-earth minerals and oil.

Even before Washington raised the issue formally, the situation was untenable. All three parties need a solution that marries Danish and U.S. interests and Greenlanders’ wellbeing.

There’s a ready fix that’s well known in international law: the condominium. Such an agreement would let Denmark and America exercise joint sovereignty over Greenland. It is a simple way to resolve competing sovereignty claims. It is well grounded in history and records of good statesmanship — formulated in the aftermath of Westphalia, centuries ago, explicitly to adjudicate scenarios like the Greenland standoff.

A condominium proposal must come from the Danes, for the sake of diplomatic prudence and national dignity. If statesmanship and national interest chart Copenhagen’s course, a Greenlandic condominium under Danish and U.S. sovereignty is within reach. It wouldn’t diminish Danish sovereignty over Greenland. Rather, it would be a partnership into which the Danes invite Americans as equals, joint sovereigns over an island that is the strategic key to a flourishing high Arctic. That partnership would unfold in the spirit of Danish-American co-operation and friendship, which was forged in the Cold War defence of Europe and proved in Afghan battlefields, where Danes gave their lives in a common cause with Americans.

It is easy to imagine what a Greenlandic condominium might look like. Danish attachments to Greenland would remain unsundered and Danish dignity would remain intact; U.S. interests would be protected; and Greenlanders would benefit from freer American investment. It’s a fitting win-win-win for a U.S. president who wrote “The Art of the Deal.”

The Wall St Journal