By AFP
March 2, 2026
The vast majority of Greenlanders oppose joining the United States, polls show - Copyright AFP/File ANGELA WEISS
Florent VERGNES
In the Greenlandic village of Kapisillit, a crisis meeting has just begun.
With one table and just two chairs, all members of the local administration are present.
Vanilla Mathiassen, a 64-year-old Danish teacher, has summoned the village chief to discuss her concerns about US President Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland and the fear that communications could be cut one day.
“If something serious were to happen, I would shout ‘Help! Get out!”, said an agitated Mathiassen.
“I’ve put in a request for a satellite phone,” village chief Heidi Nolso responded.
Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump has repeatedly threatened to take control of Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory, alleging this is needed to ensure US national security.
While Trump’s threats have ebbed in recent weeks, locals remain shaken.
Here in Kapisillit in western Greenland, a cluster of coloured houses cling to the hillside in a frozen fjord.
Around 30 people live in the settlement, surviving from hunting and fishing.
Located about 75 kilometres (47 miles) from the capital Nuuk, Kapisillit is remote and isolated.
Like hundreds of other villages in Greenland, now caught up in a geopolitical storm, the settlement depends on a fragile and costly telecommunications network.
– ‘Vulnerable’ –
On the snowy Kapisillit hillside lies a long, yellow building. As Nolso opens the door, a rancid odour escaped.
“This is the old medical clinic. It’s been empty for several months,” she told AFP.
The settlement is reachable only by boat.
Residents are accustomed to medical appointments online and emergency evacuations by helicopter.
In the event of a heart attack, “it’s too late”, Nolso said.
Without a telecommunications network, it would be impossible to contact Nuuk.
“It would be terrible if we were to be cut off from the world,” she admitted.
About 30 people live in the remote village of Kapisillit, surviving from hunting and fishing – Copyright AFP Florent VERGNES
In terms of connectivity, Greenland is “the most vulnerable country in the Arctic”, said Signe Ravn-Hojgaard, head of Danish think tank Digital Infrastruktur.
The vast Arctic island is connected to the world by two subsea fibre optic cables to Canada and Iceland, in addition to satellite coverage in the north and east.
The cables are nearing the end of their lifespan and a simultaneous cut — as in 2019 — would leave inhabitants without an internet connection for months.
“Greenland expects its network to be increasingly targeted, as the Arctic is becoming a conflict zone,” researcher and Arctic connectivity expert Michael Delaunay told AFP.
Amid the tensions with Washington, Nuuk secured funding from Copenhagen in October 2025 for a third undersea cable.
– Frequent cuts –
Kapisillit’s red wooden schoolhouse has a bell, library and Soviet-era hunting rifle to fend off polar bears.
“I communicate with Nuuk from this tablet,” Mathiassen said, pulling off her sealskin mittens to turn on the device.
“I have a big computer but it hasn’t worked since I arrived,” she said.
“Because of the distance, it’s too difficult (to fix).”
Outside the window, the relay tower connecting the village to the world is visible. It was down for a few days and the network was unstable.
“Yesterday, two helicopters landed right here. They tinkered with something, then left again,” Mathiassen recalled.
Tablets on the windowsill gather dust, remnants of an abandoned online school project.
Education authorities called in Mathiassen as an on-site teacher after frequent network cuts, even though there are just two pupils.
She teaches her class in Danish and has a local assistant to help her with Greenlandic.
Each morning when 11-year-old Tulliaq and seven-year-old Viola arrive, they put their phones in a box.
“They prefer to speak to their aunt or uncle elsewhere in Greenland than learn Danish,” Mathiassen said sourly.
Tulliaq complies reluctantly. His phone is his only link to his friend who lives in Scotland.
Once kids turn 14, they leave the settlement to continue their schooling in Nuuk. Few return.
Social networks have become a vital link for community life in Greenland.
“All relationships, including those of elected officials, go through Facebook or Messenger,” explained Mikaa Blugeon-Mered, an Arctic specialist.
For Washington, this represents an “invaluable treasure trove of intelligence on Greenlandic decision-makers”.
Experts have warned of a rising number of fake Facebook accounts and a growing polarisation of Greenland’s public debate, in a context where the local population is generally not well-versed in the risks of information manipulation.
The threat is even more serious given the fragility of Greenland’s society.
– Suicide –
During a break, Mathiassen pulled a photo album from the cupboard.
On the yellowing front page, 20 or so young Greenlanders smile, feet planted in the snow. On the back, the inscription reads “Class Picture 1997”.
The assistant searched for herself in one of the pictures, then scanned the faces, pensive.
“Many of them are dead,” she said quietly. “Suicide.”
The rural exodus of the 1970s, encouraged by Copenhagen, shattered Greenland’s social model.
Staying in touch with loved ones has become a vital need.
But access remains difficult, with an internet subscription costing around $173 a month.
“Only the rich can afford it,” lamented Nolso, noting that many elderly people live solely on their pensions.
“If we had Starlink, everything would be easier.”
The satellite internet terminals from US company SpaceX are banned in Greenland, where national operator Tusass has a telecommunications monopoly.
Under its pricing model, residents of larger, more affluent towns subsidise isolated areas where costs would otherwise be prohibitive.
Direct competition would jeopardise this balance.
In April 2025, a massive power outage in Spain deprived part of Greenland of telephone service, as it depends on Spanish satellites.
Tusass considered a deal with SpaceX to beef up its network.
But in October it ultimately turned to French company Eutelsat — despite it being less efficient — amid fears of US interference.
“Geopolitics played a major role in the choice of a European operator over an American one,” said Delaunay, noting that in Nuuk’s eyes, Starlink is a “foreign and unstable actor”.
Through the school window, a fishing boat could be seen cutting through the waters in the bay.
When storms lash Nuuk, a Danish navy frigate can sometimes be seen as well.
“What would I do if I saw US or Russian ships arriving?”, asked Mathiassen.
“A young boy told me, ‘If they come, I have a weapon and I know how to use it.'”
For now, her plan is to follow “the people here”.
In February 2025, a two-day storm destroyed some houses and cut Kapisillit off from the world.
“In case of an emergency, we would have had no help from Nuuk,” Nolso said.
But, she noted, “Greenlanders are patient people”.
If everything stops, “they’ll just return to nature”.
Greenland is ‘open for business’ — kind of, says business leader
By AFP
March 1, 2026
Greenland's fishing industry is the main sector on the Arctic island
By AFP
March 1, 2026
Greenland's fishing industry is the main sector on the Arctic island
- Copyright AFP Florent VERGNES
Florent VERGNES
As Greenland’s rare earths and minerals are sized up, the head of the Arctic territory’s main business group has warned against deals simply shipping its resources and profits overseas.
Christian Keldsen, head of the Greenland Business Association, told AFP that the government must avoid saying that Greenland is “open for business” when in reality, long and difficult negotiations lie ahead.
Some other countries may become frustrated, Keldsen said, calling for balanced development in the autonomous Danish island in the global spotlight since US President Donald Trump returned to power.
Trump, who said Greenland should come under US control for security reasons, alarmed Denmark and other European nations by at one point refusing to rule out the use of force. As its ice covering melts, Greenland’s mineral resources are increasingly coveted.
Greenland has long survived on subsidies from the Danish government that account for about 20 percent of its economy. It knows it needs massive investment to survive on its own.
“The risk obviously is that if you open the floodgates too much, you’re going to get companies in and they’re going to take everything out and all the revenue goes out of the country as well,” said Keldsen, whose office is in a wooden house in the capital Nuuk.
“So finding the right balance of creating local value and wealth and at the same time being attractive to investors and to the projects — that’s what we need to be finding.”
– ‘Interested in business’ –
Fishing, mainly cod, is Greenland’s main industry, and the key Royal Greenland fishing company is a semi-state enterprise.
The island’s telecoms and electricity companies are also state-owned, given the difficulties in providing services to the many isolated corners of the territory of just 57,000 people.
Greenland wants to develop tourism and its mining sector — but not for nothing.
In November, the parliament passed a law restricting the purchase of property and land use rights of foreign entities.
And Keldsen said the public-dominated economic model is not suited to a sudden opening up.
“So our government is saying, ‘we’re open for business’. And we say, please don’t say ‘open for business’. Please say ‘we’re interested in business’.
“Because it takes five minutes of due diligence for any lawyer in France or the US or Canada or Denmark to say, it’s not very open for business.”
According to Keldsen, Greenland was “always in control of everything domestically”.
“We were in control of the offering, the pricing, demand, everything. But now we have to trade with the outside world.”
– Mineral resources –
North American and European companies are interested in Greenland’s vast mineral resources that could play a crucial role in many new tech and defence industries.
A lot of people think that “the money is just going to come flooding out of the underground”, said Keldsen, who predicted disappointment for many.
Mining can take decades to become profitable, and the high cost makes revenues uncertain.
In mid-February there were 138 mining licences, but only two operating mines. Most of the licences are held by small speculative concerns hoping to sell on their rights later at a profit.
And Greenlandic authorities tightly control the allocation of licences and who they go to, said Keldsen.
– Interference ‘not good’ –
According to Keldsen, the US leader’s ambitions in the Arctic region have also led to a tourism boom.
He sees the US as a key partner for Nuuk, which is seeking to attract more American investors.
“The interference in domestic politics is not good,” the business leader said.
“But the good things coming out of this is there is a dialogue with Denmark to a much better degree,” as well as with the EU, Canada, and the US itself.
While some businesses see an opportunity to strengthen US ties, others are “second-guessing” their decisions to work with American customers or investors as they are “afraid of what would that do to their reputation”.
The fraught context has resulted in closer dialogue between Nuuk and Copenhagen, particularly on defence, and has stimulated European business interest.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected in Greenland to discuss new strategic investments in March.
Florent VERGNES
As Greenland’s rare earths and minerals are sized up, the head of the Arctic territory’s main business group has warned against deals simply shipping its resources and profits overseas.
Christian Keldsen, head of the Greenland Business Association, told AFP that the government must avoid saying that Greenland is “open for business” when in reality, long and difficult negotiations lie ahead.
Some other countries may become frustrated, Keldsen said, calling for balanced development in the autonomous Danish island in the global spotlight since US President Donald Trump returned to power.
Trump, who said Greenland should come under US control for security reasons, alarmed Denmark and other European nations by at one point refusing to rule out the use of force. As its ice covering melts, Greenland’s mineral resources are increasingly coveted.
Greenland has long survived on subsidies from the Danish government that account for about 20 percent of its economy. It knows it needs massive investment to survive on its own.
“The risk obviously is that if you open the floodgates too much, you’re going to get companies in and they’re going to take everything out and all the revenue goes out of the country as well,” said Keldsen, whose office is in a wooden house in the capital Nuuk.
“So finding the right balance of creating local value and wealth and at the same time being attractive to investors and to the projects — that’s what we need to be finding.”
– ‘Interested in business’ –
Fishing, mainly cod, is Greenland’s main industry, and the key Royal Greenland fishing company is a semi-state enterprise.
The island’s telecoms and electricity companies are also state-owned, given the difficulties in providing services to the many isolated corners of the territory of just 57,000 people.
Greenland wants to develop tourism and its mining sector — but not for nothing.
In November, the parliament passed a law restricting the purchase of property and land use rights of foreign entities.
And Keldsen said the public-dominated economic model is not suited to a sudden opening up.
“So our government is saying, ‘we’re open for business’. And we say, please don’t say ‘open for business’. Please say ‘we’re interested in business’.
“Because it takes five minutes of due diligence for any lawyer in France or the US or Canada or Denmark to say, it’s not very open for business.”
According to Keldsen, Greenland was “always in control of everything domestically”.
“We were in control of the offering, the pricing, demand, everything. But now we have to trade with the outside world.”
– Mineral resources –
North American and European companies are interested in Greenland’s vast mineral resources that could play a crucial role in many new tech and defence industries.
A lot of people think that “the money is just going to come flooding out of the underground”, said Keldsen, who predicted disappointment for many.
Mining can take decades to become profitable, and the high cost makes revenues uncertain.
In mid-February there were 138 mining licences, but only two operating mines. Most of the licences are held by small speculative concerns hoping to sell on their rights later at a profit.
And Greenlandic authorities tightly control the allocation of licences and who they go to, said Keldsen.
– Interference ‘not good’ –
According to Keldsen, the US leader’s ambitions in the Arctic region have also led to a tourism boom.
He sees the US as a key partner for Nuuk, which is seeking to attract more American investors.
“The interference in domestic politics is not good,” the business leader said.
“But the good things coming out of this is there is a dialogue with Denmark to a much better degree,” as well as with the EU, Canada, and the US itself.
While some businesses see an opportunity to strengthen US ties, others are “second-guessing” their decisions to work with American customers or investors as they are “afraid of what would that do to their reputation”.
The fraught context has resulted in closer dialogue between Nuuk and Copenhagen, particularly on defence, and has stimulated European business interest.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected in Greenland to discuss new strategic investments in March.
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