In an extraordinary message to Norway’s prime minister, President Donald Trump linked his pursuit of the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He repeated his long-debunked declare that he ended eight wars. And he made one other false declare – that no written paperwork assist Denmark’s possession of Greenland.
“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” Trump wrote.
In actuality, Nordic boats started arriving in Greenland centuries before the United States even existed; the settlement that turned Greenland’s capital of Nuuk was established by a Danish-Norwegian missionary in the early 1700s, many years earlier than US independence. Of course, the historical past of many nations, together with the US, additionally concerned Europeans arriving by boat and claiming territory in areas beforehand populated by Indigenous peoples. But simply as that wasn’t the tip of the story for the US, it’s not the tip of the story for Greenland. There are quite a few written paperwork recognizing Danish sovereignty over Greenland – a few of them signed by the US authorities throughout this century and the final.
“Donald Trump’s claim is false, again,” stated Marc Jacobsen, affiliate professor on the Royal Danish Defence College who’s an professional on Arctic safety and diplomacy. He famous that Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland has been repeatedly acknowledged internationally, “not least” by the US.
Below is a sampling of the paperwork the president recommended don’t exist.
As a part of a deal in which Denmark bought the Danish West Indies to the US, the place they renamed them the US Virgin Islands, the US agreed in 1916 to concern a written declaration acknowledging Danish sovereignty over Greenland.
Then-Secretary of State Robert Lansing wrote in the declaration that, “duly authorized by his Government,” he had “the honor to declare that the Government of the United States of America will not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.”
In 1931, Norway occupied and claimed sovereignty over a part of jap Greenland. But after the dispute landed on the Permanent Court of International Justice (later changed by the International Court of Justice), the court docket issued a ruling in 1933 in favor of Denmark’s argument that it had sovereignty over all of Greenland.
Among numerous different components, the judges cited one other doc: an 1814 treaty in which Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden however Denmark retained Greenland.
An agreement signed throughout World War II by the US secretary of state and the Danish ambassador to the US, whereas Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, gave the US broad powers to assemble and function army services in Greenland. But that settlement explicitly and repeatedly acknowledged Danish sovereignty over Greenland.
“Although the sovereignty of Denmark over Greenland is fully recognized, the present circumstances for the time being prevent the Government in Denmark from exercising its powers in respect of Greenland,” the preamble to the settlement defined.
The settlement itself stated, “The Government of the United States of America reiterates its recognition of and respect for the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over Greenland,” the settlement stated. It additionally stated, “The Kingdom of Denmark retains sovereignty over the defense areas mentioned in the preceding articles.”
After the institution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, the US and Denmark signed an up to date agreement to incorporate NATO into their 1941 association and to set some guidelines governing the US army presence in Greenland.
Before laying out US powers in the “defense areas” in which the US army was permitted to function in Greenland, the settlement stated that these powers had been granted “without prejudice to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over such defense area and the natural right of the competent Danish authorities to free movement everywhere in Greenland.”
The New York Times noted in its information article on the time: “Danish sovereignty is fully and explicitly realized in the agreement, and in recognition of that fact, the North Atlantic pact nations recommended that a Danish officer be given supreme command of the local defenses of the island.”
An agreement signed by the US underneath the Republican administration of then-President George W. Bush, which up to date and amended the 1951 settlement, once more explicitly famous Danish sovereignty over Greenland. The revised deal famous that Greenland’s standing had modified “from colony to that of an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark under the Constitution” and that “a wide ranging Greenland Home Rule” had been established. This deal included the federal government of Greenland as a 3rd signatory alongside the US and Denmark.