Greenland: Tussle over Denmark’s Territory
With recent remarks being made over the icy cold territory of Greenland, the geographically isolated landmass has become the focal point of western politics with nations in and around the Atlantic, wanting to prove their supremacy over the same. Greenland is an autonomous territory of land, far off in the Atlantic Ocean, extremely close to the Arctic Circle, currently pledging sovereignty to Denmark. Part of the Council of Europe, via Denmark, Greenland is also a member of the European Union, apart from being the world’s largest island landmass. Even though, geographically it is termed as a distant part of the North American continent, Greenland has always pledged its proximity to the European nations, especially Denmark. Circumpolar population has always preferred Greenland for their settlement purposes, and the Norsemen of Norway were one of the earliest to make Greenland their home. The largest city being Nuuk, it has been inhabited by the Inuit as well, in the early 13th century. However, today the diplomatic tussle over control of Greenland is basically because of its mineral rich topography and presence of critical earth elements, that are poised to become the minerals of the future.
Greenland has historically been a favourite of earlier European rulers, as well. After the separation of Denmark and Norway, Greenland was transferred from the Norwegian crown to the Danish seat of rule. Through the 1979 Greenlandic Self-Government Referendum, home rule was granted to the Greenlanders, and further in 2008, more power was transferred to the local Naalakkersuisut (Greenland government). Today, most of the Greenlanders are Inuit– a cohesive group of historically and culturally similar indigenous people traditionally inhabiting the Subarctic and Arctic regions of nations like Russia, Greenland, Yukon, Alaska, and North America. However, there have been voices to gain complete independence from the Denmark’s authoritative government. The recent calls from over the borders, have now refueled these demands, so as to enable independent decision-making process. But before understanding why the international political scene has made Greenland as its new hot topic, one must be aware of the geographical, economic, political, diplomatic, and topographical importance of the same.
Strategic Importance of Greenland: A Bird’s Eye View
Vast ice sheets, highly potential mineral rich landmass, recognised importance of its ports, and USA’s specific interest in the same due to its military bases being built there; along with its rising defense indispensability- Greenland’s territory makes it a strategically viable option for both North America and Europe. Any nation hosting military bases in Greenland, such as the US, are in potential benefit of making required progress in the region, much before any other nation. Due to reported melting of the Arctic ice, due to global climate change transformations, Greenland is enroute to accessing the Arctic ice sheets, beneath which global water systems of Arctic are in possession of continental elements that can enrich any nation’s development. The Arctic contains the rare earth elements (REEs), which are considered quintessentially important for global energy transition and numerous advancements in technological revolution. These RREs include neodymium, praseodynium, turbium, and dysprosium, which are considered to be vital for developing electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, and other electric vehicles. Apart from this, platinum and related elements, miobium, and phosphorus are also in abundance in the Arctic. Russia, North America, European nations specifically the Scandinavian countries seek to benefit themselves immensely via extracting these minerals and lead the world in electric vehicle generation.
However, short shipping season in the Arctic, humungous costs of unearthing these minerals, dangerously melting permafrost, summer swamps, polar bears, undiscovered wildlife and plant-life, excessively low climate in the winters- can pose myriad challenges to the interested countries in developing their “Arctic-Centric Plans” further. Apart from this, limited labour availability, lack of specialised technologies, and the undiscovered Arctic also pose a number of difficulties to all the nations around the world, in exploring the untouched world of the Arctic. Because the world today has, and is adopting green technologies as well as sustainable options, the need for RREs have been rising beyond imaginable extent. To manage these demands and proposals, the international community has come together and formed the Arctic Council.
The Arctic Council, being an intergovernmental body/forum, promotes cooperation among Arctic states and indigenous communities on environmental protection and sustainable development. Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States of America are the member nations of this international inter-governmental forum. The focus of the same generally lies on the issues of climate change, emergency prevention and response, biodiversity preservation and upkeep, as well as the achievement of the sustainable development goals. India, being an observer State in the Arctic Council is actively engaged and immersed in the Arctic research via her Himadri research station located in Svalbard, Norway. Apart from this, several indigenous peoples’ organisations are also a part of the Council. The Council’s establishment can be traced back to the Arctic Environment Protection Strategy (AEPS), which also aims to protect the rights and fundamental principles of the circumpolar indigenous groupings.
The Current Shake-up: India and the World
With the discovery of mineral rich areas amidst the Arctic continental shelf, the exploitation of other mineral-rich areas on the earth, rise in viability of the electronic vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries, and with countries racing to achieve their sustainable development targets, Arctic ice sheet shelf has become the most feasible option to race for. With Arctic sheet melting and global warming rising tremendously, the shipping routes near and inside the Arctic region are expanding like never before. The trade routes of the Atlantic and the Pacific are already overcrowded with world’s major shipping and mercantile trade taking place through these routes, and the Arctic opportunity has just arrived at the right time for the world leaders.
With economic interests and trade wars becoming the new norm, world leaders are literally jostling over to expand their network and dominance over newer routes. Western nations, particularly are eager to control the Arctic lands, with Russia grappling over to counter them and establish its own supremacy. The rights of the indigenous people of the land, are thereby threatened to the core, and the wildlife (till now protected) stands to lose on its grip on the untouched lands of the Arctic. The protection of indigenous groupings, the protection of wildlife, flora and fauna combined, the ecological conservation of the biodiversity of Arctic, the counter steps being taken up by the Western and the Russian fronts, and the genuine eagerness of the world leaders in a new opening of the world frontier- are but, some of the issues that need to be looked into proactively, before taking up any steps in the region. India, on her part has always been vary of over-exploiting any region, and thereby like before, has taken up the right steps- balancing economic development and biodiversity conservation, quite dexterously and harmoniously. However, what turn the new events would take and how the same would affect the whole Arctic region, need to watched closely. Till then, maintaining a harmonious balance between demands and supplies, is what is meant to be done.
