JD Vance receives a sinister message to the Danish territory

A green brightness, like a light curtain that was drawn through the night sky, formed next to the incredibly bright stars on Nuuk on Friday night.

The appearance of the spectacular lights of the north, a common wonder in these parts, seemed to mark the end of a very significant day in the Arctic, one that brought the hopes and challenges of Greenland of Ice Nain.

It was a day when an acquired foreign power had sent an un invited delegation to the world’s largest island with an awkward message.

On a brief visit to a remote American military base at the northern end of Greenland, the American vice president JD Vance may have sometimes tried to soften the declared objective of his boss of simply annexing the Danish autonomous territory.

“We do not believe that military force is ever necessary,” said Vance, maybe trying to sound reassuring.

But the general message of the vice president remained marked and intimidating: the world, the climate and the Arctic region are changing rapidly, and Greenland needs to wake up with the threats raised by an expansionist China; Western Data Security associations have followed their course; The only way in which the island can protect itself, its values ​​and mineral wealth is to abandon the weak and miserable Danish gentlemen and turn in its place to the muscular and protective hug of the United States.

“We need to wake up from a 40 -year failed consensus that says we could ignore the invasion of powerful countries as they expand their ambitions.

“We cannot bury our head in the sand, or, in Greenland, bury our head in the snow – And pretend that the Chinese are not interested in this great mass of earth, “Vance told US troops at the Pituffik base.

If you observe a map of the world that has the north pole in its center, instead of Ecuador, it is easy to see how Greenland suddenly changes from being a soft spot and easy to overlook uninhabited territory and in a mass of strategic earth in the heart of what many analysts now accept as an emerging power struggle between China, the United States and Russia, for the control of the Arcium, their minerals now and their analysts and their analysts and their analysts.

But the speed and contempt with which Trump’s White House has rejected its traditional dependence on Western allies, NATO in particular, has left its bewildered partners.

“Not justifiable”, was the bristle response of the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen after listening to Vance to attack his government while standing in his sovereign territory.

But 1,500 km (930 miles) south of the United States Pituffik base, in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, American history competed for attention with a very different local event on Friday.

“We will prevail,” he sang a smiling crowd, in a ceremony to celebrate the formation of a new coalition government for Greenland.

The mood felt mostly cheerful and communal, with people closing weapons and gently swinging as a band touched inside the city’s house of culture.

It was a powerful reminder of the shared values ​​that unite the small inuit population of Greenland and overwhelmingly native: the need for consensus and cooperation in a natural climate often hostile, the desire to protect and celebrate the Inuit culture and the desire to be respected by strangers, whether they are family dinina but distant or marginally closed America.

“There are many ways to say things. But I think the road (Trump) says that it is not the way. It’s like a threat,” said Lisbeth Karline Poulen, 43, a local artist who will attend the ceremony.

His reaction seemed to capture the broadest mood here: a recent survey showed that only 6% of the population supports the idea of ​​being part of the United States.

Under his new government, and with an overwhelming public support, Greenland is beginning a slow and very cautious movement towards the full independence of Denmark.

It is a process that will probably take many years, and that will imply a long dialogue with Copenhagen and Washington.

After all, Greenlandés understand that their economy must be much more developed if their independence offer is to have any realistic chance of success.

But they need to balance that development against realistic fears of the exploitation of powerful commercial forces outside.

Which leads us to fundamental confusion, in Greenland and beyond, on the Trump administration approach to its territory.

During his visit, Vance mentioned the independence aspirations of Greenland and implied that the real intention of the United States was not a sudden annexation of the island, but something much more patient already long term.

“Our message is very simple, yes, the people of Greenland will have self -determination. We hope they choose to associate with the United States, because we are the only nation in the earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their safety.”

If that is genuinely the American launch, Trump’s messages are still more aggressive than Vance’s, then the Greenlands can surely relax a bit and take their time.

There are still great goodwill to the United States here, and a great interest in doing more business with American companies.

On the Security Front, a 74 -year -old treaty with Denmark allowed the United States to increase its military presence in Greenland at any time, from new bases to submarine ports, it should surely take care of Washington’s concerns about counteracting the threat of China, as it did during the years of the cold war.

What remains disconcerting is the impatience of Donald Trump: the same impatience he has shown when trying to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine.

Apart from being the owner of Greenland, the United States could get everything you want and need this vast island without much difficulty. Instead, many people in Nuuk feel that they are being intimidated.

It is deeply Counterproductive approach, which has already forced Washington to a humiliating escalation, canceling a cultural tour planned by Vance’s wife, Usha, Nuuk and another city in front of the planned local protests.

A more slow, more respectful and behind the scene would make more sense.

But that is not for the taste of all politicians.