On September 22, 2026, Donald Trump, together with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland, signed an agreement on strengthened security in Greenland and the wider Arctic and North Atlantic region. Just days earlier, on September 18, Trump had announced that the United States had reached an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that, in his words, gives the United States \u201cpermanent control\u201d over security and other needs in Greenland.
\nThe announcement came after months of tension over Greenland\u2019s strategic importance and the question of who has the right to determine its future. The Danish and Greenlandic governments have emphasized that the agreement respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, as well as the Greenlandic people\u2019s right to self-determination.
\nBefore looking at what this agreement means, I also think it is important to acknowledge the Greenlandic political leadership. Greenland has been under enormous international pressure, yet its representatives have continued to stand up for Greenland\u2019s interests and the Greenlandic people\u2019s right to self-determination. Navigating this situation has required diplomacy, patience and the ability to remain at the table even when the pressure has been immense. I do believe that deserves to be recognized.
\nBut this development does add a new and important dimension to a question that has already challenged Europe, the Kingdom of Denmark, NATO and, above all, Greenland itself.
\nAnd yet, despite everything that has been said and done over the past months, an agreement was still reached. This leaves a difficult question hanging in the air: How can a country that has spent months putting pressure on Greenland and openly questioning its right to determine its own future now become the country entrusted with its permanent security? How do we reconcile those two realities? And what does it mean when the same power that made Greenland question its intentions is now presented as part of the answer to protecting Greenland?
\nGreenland became a geopolitical question because of\u2028its location, but it became a human question because of its people.
\nThe recent crisis forced Europe to look north and,\u2028 perhaps for the first time in a long time, to look seriously at Greenland \u2013 not\u2028merely as territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, but as a people with\u2028their own history, identity and right to determine their own future.
\nGreenland cannot simply be reduced to \u201cEuropean territory\u201d or to an American strategic asset.
\nGreenland is geographically part of North America, while politically it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, with extensive self-government. This unique position is precisely what makes Greenland so important. It is situated between Europe and North America, between two sides of the Atlantic that are connected not only by oceans, but by history, security and alliances.
\nIts geographical position has made Greenland strategically important for generations. But Greenland\u2019s significance should not be discussed only through the lens of European security or NATO. There is another dimension that cannot be separated from the conversation: the people who have lived on this land for thousands of years.
\nThe Inuit people are the Indigenous people of Greenland. We are the people who have been the keepers and protectors of some of the most extraordinary landscapes and ecosystems on Earth. We survived thousands of years in one of the harshest environments on the planet, and still thrived as a people, carrying stories of love, courage, family and survival from one generation to the next.
\nWe were once connected as one people, but colonial borders and political structures divided us.
\nFor a long time, many of our stories were told through the eyes of colonial countries rather than by the people themselves. Our way of life, culture and traditions were often measured against how closely they resembled Western civilization.
\nThat is why the question of Greenland is not only about geography.
\nIt is also about sovereignty.
\nSovereignty is ultimately about the right of a people to determine their own future. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but it has extensive self-government, established first through Home Rule in 1979 and further expanded through the Self-Government Act in 2009. Foreign and security policy remain matters for the Kingdom, while Greenland governs many areas of its own domestic affairs.
\nThis makes the discussion about Greenland particularly complex.
\nEurope speaks constantly about sovereignty, democracy and international law. Yet Greenland exposes how complicated those principles can become when geography, colonial history, security interests and American power intersect.
\nThe question cannot simply be: Who controls Greenland?
\nThe question must also be: What does Greenland itself want, and how do we respect the people who live there?
\nFor many years, Greenland was not given the same international attention that it receives today. But the recent crisis created an echo across Europe.
\nMany European countries began to show greater interest in Greenland, not simply because of its strategic position, but because of the opportunity to create stronger relationships between Greenland and the rest of Europe \u2013 to strengthen connections between cultures, traditions and people across borders.
\nFor many Greenlandic people, it also created space for conversations about the relationship between Greenland and Denmark, about history, identity, the future, but also the past.
\nCountries that previously knew very little about Greenland suddenly began looking north and asking questions. Who are these people? What is Greenland\u2019s history? What can Europe learn from Greenland? And how can relationships be built that are based not only on strategic interests, but also on mutual respect?
\nThat was perhaps one of the most beautiful things I felt came out of this difficult situation.
\nIt created room.
\nA room that had not always been given to the Inuit.
\nFor the first time, many people became curious about who we are \u2013 not simply as people living in the far north, but as a people with our own culture, traditions, history and identity.
\nOf course, this is a challenging subject. There are many different stories, opinions and political positions surrounding Greenland and Denmark.
\nI choose to focus on what can bring us forward.
\nI believe that the power lies in love, courage and responsibility, and that healing requires us to think about and focus on future generations.
\nWe cannot change the past by making people today pay for things they did not personally commit. But taking responsibility for history and being held accountable for its consequences is necessary \u2013 if we want to heal.
\nShame, pain and hatred directed towards people who are simply products of the history of the Danish Kingdom cannot be the answer either.
\nFor a long time, I believe people have been trying to find someone to blame.
\nAnd people who come from both worlds often become either a bridge or a burden \u2013 a living symbol of a history that once took place. How that history is processed depends on the individual.
\nBut I believe being a bridge can also be a strength.<\/p>\n
Trump and the question of Europe and NATO<\/strong><\/p>\n Then, in December 2024, Donald Trump made his renewed interest in Greenland unmistakably clear. On December 22, he stated that American \u201cownership and control of Greenland\u201d was important for U.S. national security. Greenland’s Prime Minister M\u00fate B. Egede responded that Greenland was not for sale and never will be for sale. War.<\/strong> My personal story<\/strong><\/p>\n Being \u201cGreenlandic\u201d in Denmark did not exactly have the most positive meaning when I was growing up. Naja Mathilde Rosing, crowned Miss Grand Greenland 2024, made history as the country’s first-ever representative at Miss Grand International. Rosing will be a guest at Il Foglio’s Festa dell’Ottimismo (Feast of Optimism) on October 10<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On September 22, 2026, Donald Trump, together with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland, signed an agreement on strengthened security in Greenland and the wider Arctic and North Atlantic region. Just days earlier, on September 18, Trump had announced that the United States had reached an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that, in his words, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":71,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8279,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8178\/revisions\/8279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI personally believe that this is also a strong message saying: \u201cYou think you can buy everything with your American dollars \u2013 take and do what you want with no consequences\u201d \u2013 but we won\u2019t let you. You cannot buy land. You cannot buy a people.
\nWatching the situation develop, and seeing the possibility of Greenland being treated primarily as a strategic possession rather than as the home of a people, I began to fear the worst.<\/p>\n
\nTo put Greenland into context: it is a peaceful society without its own conventional military. Defense and security are matters handled at the level of the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland is nevertheless covered by NATO through Denmark’s membership of the Alliance.
\nAnd this is where Greenland became a European question.
\nWhen Donald Trump threatened the existing status quo around Greenland, the discussion was no longer only about Greenland and Denmark. It also raised questions about sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law and the principles underpinning the transatlantic alliance.
\nNATO exists around the principle of collective defense. Article 5 states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all, and that Allies commit to assisting one another.
\nGreenland’s strategic importance to NATO is also very real. NATO describes the Arctic and the High North as increasingly important to the Alliance’s collective security, with seven of the eight Arctic states being NATO Allies.
\nBut I believe there is something deeper here than military strategy.
\nEurope’s security is not only about protecting territory.
\nIt is also about protecting the principles on which European cooperation was built: sovereignty, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, solidarity and the right of people to determine their own future.
\nFor me, that is what made the solidarity shown towards Greenland so meaningful.
\nIt was not simply about a piece of land on a map.
\nIt was about saying that the future of a people cannot simply be decided by someone else.
\nAnd perhaps that is one of the most important lessons Greenland can offer Europe.
\nGeography may make Greenland strategically important.
\nNATO may make Greenland part of a wider security architecture.
\nBut none of those things should make Greenland invisible as a people.
\nThe land is not separate from the people who call it home.
\nThe Arctic is not an empty space.
\nGreenland is not only a strategic asset.
\nIt is home.
\nAnd its people deserve to have their voices heard when the world discusses its future.<\/p>\n
\nI came from a loving and supportive family where no one ever made me feel that I was \u201chalf\u201d of anything. I was simply a whole person.
\nBut outside my family, the world was not always like that.
\nBeing both Greenlandic and Danish made me a political topic from the day I took my first breath.
\nGrowing up between two countries and adapting to two worlds, I gradually realized how deeply racism and stereotypes towards Inuit people \u2013 and, in the Danish context, towards the Greenlandic people \u2013 could affect people’s lives.
\nStanding in the middle can be challenging, because sometimes people will tell you that your voice is not as valid as someone who is \u201ctruly\u201d one thing or the other.
\nBut I kept thinking:
\nWhat about people like me?
\nThere must be many of us.
\nWhere are they?
\nI have always been very spiritual. I love nature and the ocean, and Inuit culture runs through my veins. It has given me peace and comfort throughout my life, because nature does not judge you. It lives in harmony with you when you show it respect.
\nThe racism did not scare me away.
\nInstead, it made me want to tell more people about the beauty of life in the North and challenge the stereotypes they had about Inuit people.
\nWhen I was living in Nuuk, where my family is from, I was interviewed by a newspaper. During the interview, the woman suddenly asked me:
\n\u201cHave you ever thought about entering Miss Greenland?\u201d
\nI was 16 back then, and I remember thinking: What is that?
\nShe explained what a beauty pageant was. I had never heard of or seen anything like it before.
\nBut I never forgot that conversation.
\nWhen I returned to Denmark, I quickly felt again that someone like me could never do something like that. People would laugh. People would use racial slurs.
\nAnd suddenly it became a mission for me.
\nI can do it.
\nWe can do it.
\nWhy not?
\nThat was when my journey really began.
\nI started promoting Inuit culture, fashion, beauty and traditions. I refused to let other people’s perceptions decide our fate. I wanted to challenge the ignorance I often encountered, and I wanted to protect and represent my country and my people \u2013 I wondered why no one knew about Greenland or the Inuit people in general.
\nWhen I entered the beauty pageant world, it also became a political statement.
\nBut it did not scare me.
\nWe all have our own personal reasons for the paths we choose in life. Mine was, without a doubt, to show that Inuit people are just as capable as any other people in this world.
\nI began a journey without knowing where it would take me.
\nI did not know anyone who was doing what I was doing. That was frightening and unpredictable. People had many different opinions about the way I chose to do it.
\nBut I wanted to do it my own way.
\nTo be myself.
\nTo do something that genuinely felt right in my heart.
\nThat is the feeling I have always held on to:
\n\u201cBe true to yourself. People will either like it or they will not.\u201d
\nBut the people who understand what you are trying to do will find you.
\nAnd they will support you.
\nBecause this is not only about me.
\nIt is about taking space.
\nIt is about representing.
\nIt is about challenging people’s perceptions.
\nAnd it is about making a difference.
\nAnd that is what kept me going \u2013 In how many lives can I make a positive impact? How many lives can I inspire to be bold and use the voice they were given?
\nThese are also values that I choose to live by, both personally and politically.
\nI am proud to have been given opportunities to represent Greenland and to speak about these questions in Europe \u2013 I am not scared to use the voice I was given. I will continue to fight for what I believe is right.
\nBecause my involvement did not begin with Trump.
\nIt began much earlier \u2013 with a little girl being asked whether she had ever thought about becoming Miss Greenland.
\nIt began with wondering whether someone like me had a place in the conversation.
\nAnd today, I realise that perhaps the answer was never about whether I belonged in that space.
\nIt was about creating the space.
\nFor Greenland.
\nFor the Inuit people.
\nFor people who come from more than one world.
\nAnd for the generations that come after us.<\/p>\n