Complicated relations
"Greenland has been building alliances across the globe for about half a century, among others with the Nordics, the US, Canada and East Asia, including China. Quite a few of these alliances are however really complicated at the moment," Nielsen further explains.
As HNN reported in November,the point of tensions with the Nordic countries particularly relates to dynamics in the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers, having been excluded from certain meetings in the organizations. The Faroe Islands and Greenland both expressed that they no longer accept exclusion from Nordic summits on foreign and security policy and demanding full-fledged membership of the two organizations.
"Greenland has for instance been quite critical of the Nordic Council in recent years and boycotting some meetings, sending a clear message that it is not ok to have meetings and discussing Arctic security while they are not around," Nielsen adds.
"It's very complicated between Greenland and Denmark at the moment as well. But that is being overtrumped by Trump all of a sudden."
When it comes to the European continent, Nielsens says the EU in an economic sense has been a much more vital part for Greenland than the US and Canada have been.
"There has been quite a lot of funding in education, for instance. In the fisheries sector, there's been fisheries agreements in place since the 80s. Now, there is a third pillar in terms of green energy," he highlights and adds that EU was however a surprisingly minor part in the foreign policy strategy.