- Immigrant Times
- Dec 26, 2025
- 7 min read
A CANADA-GREENLAND PARTNERSHIP
Greenland is not for America to annex, but to strengthen its ties with its Canadian neighbour
Lost in President Trump's geopolitical theatre is a basic Arctic reality: Greenland has far more in common, historically, culturally, and socially, with neighbouring Canada than with the United States.
By The Immigrant Times
While US President Trump threatens to annex Greenland, the Inuit nation is forming closer relations with its neighbouring country, Canada. Both countries’ Inuit people share a common migration history
US annexation rhetoric versus Arctic reality
December 2025: US President Donald Trump’s renewed insistence that the United States should acquire Greenland, “one way or another”, as he has put it, has propelled the world’s largest island back to the centre of global attention. What had once been dismissed as an eccentric aside during Trump’s first presidency has returned with sharper political intent, underlined by the appointment of the Louisiana governor as a special envoy tasked with advancing Washington’s Arctic interests.
The response from Greenland has been swift and unequivocal. Greenlandic politicians have reiterated that the territory is not for sale and that its future will be decided by its own people. Denmark, which retains responsibility for foreign affairs and defence, has similarly rejected any suggestion of annexation, stressing the principles of sovereignty and international law. Across Europe, officials have expressed concern that the language surrounding Greenland reflects a broader erosion of respect for borders and self-determination.
Much of the commentary has focused on the strategic value of Greenland, its location between North America and Europe, its role in missile defence, and its vast reserves of rare earth minerals. Yet this framing risks obscuring a more fundamental truth. Greenland is not a blank geopolitical prize awaiting ownership. It is a society with deep Indigenous roots, a distinctive culture, and long-standing ties across the Arctic that point not south to Washington, but west to Canada.
Indeed, when viewed through the lens of history, culture and lived reality, Greenland has far more in common with neighbouring Canada than with the United States. Understanding that connection helps explain why annexation rhetoric rings hollow, and why a future built on partnership rather than possession offers a far more credible path forward.
A shared Inuit history of migration across the Arctic
The human history of Greenland and northern Canada begins thousands of kilometres away, in north-eastern Siberia. Archaeological and genetic evidence show that the ancestors of today’s Inuit peoples migrated eastward across the Bering Strait in successive waves, adapting to one of the planet’s harshest environments as they moved.
Over centuries, these communities spread across what is now Arctic Alaska and Canada, following the rhythms of sea ice, wildlife migration and seasonal light. Around a thousand years ago, ancestors of the Thule culture, the direct forebears of modern Inuit, had reached Greenland, completing one of humanity’s most remarkable migrations.
This movement was not an abstract journey across maps, but a continuous process of settlement, adaptation and connection. The Arctic was never an empty space; it was a lived landscape, bound together by kinship, trade and shared knowledge. The ice, rather than separating communities, often connected them.
Seen in this context, the modern borders dividing Canada and Greenland are recent constructs layered onto an ancient continuum. The people who settled Greenland did not arrive from Europe or North America’s temperate south, but from the same Arctic world that shaped Inuit societies across Canada.
This shared origin remains central to how many Inuit understand their identity today, not as citizens of distant capitals, but as Arctic peoples whose history predates the modern state system.
Inuit populations and Arctic governance today
Today, the demographic realities of Greenland and Arctic Canada further underscore their close relationship.
In Canada as a whole, Inuit account for only a small percentage of the national population. Yet in the Arctic regions, particularly Nunavut, parts of the Northwest Territories, and northern Quebec (Nunavik), Inuit form the majority. Nunavut itself, created in 1999 following decades of Inuit political mobilisation, is the clearest expression of Indigenous self-governance in Canada. Its institutions reflect Inuit priorities, languages and cultural norms, even as they operate within the Canadian federation.
Greenland presents a parallel but distinct picture. Roughly 90 per cent of its population is of Inuit descent, commonly referred to as Kalaallit. Since the introduction of home rule in 1979 and expanded self-government in 2009, Greenland has exercised broad control over domestic affairs, including education, natural resources and cultural policy. While Denmark remains responsible for defence and foreign relations, Greenland’s political trajectory has been steadily oriented toward greater autonomy.
In both cases, governance in the Arctic has evolved in response to Indigenous demands for recognition, representation and control over local affairs. While Canada and Greenland differ in constitutional structure, they share an understanding that legitimacy in the Arctic flows from the consent and participation of Indigenous peoples, not from distant capitals asserting authority over unfamiliar terrain.
This reality stands in stark contrast to external portrayals of Greenland as a strategic asset to be acquired, rather than a society governed by its own people.
Language, culture and Arctic continuity
The cultural connections between Inuit in Canada and Greenland remain visible in everyday life, particularly through language. Inuit languages spoken across the Arctic, including Inuktitut in Canada and Kalaallisut in Greenland, belong to the same linguistic family. While dialects vary, speakers can often recognise shared vocabulary and structures, reflecting their common roots.
Beyond language, cultural traditions continue to bind Inuit communities across borders. Storytelling, oral history and the transmission of environmental knowledge remain central to Inuit identity. Hunting and fishing practices, adapted to local conditions, are underpinned by shared values of respect for animals and the land. Seasonal rhythms, the return of light after winter darkness, the movement of sea mammals, and the freeze and thaw of ice shape social and cultural life in similar ways across the Arctic.
Modern life has inevitably brought change. Urbanisation, wage labour and global media have altered Inuit societies in both Canada and Greenland. Yet cultural continuity persists, not as nostalgia, but as a living framework through which communities navigate the present.
These shared traditions reinforce the sense that Inuit in Greenland and Canada are part of the same Arctic world, one defined by connection rather than separation.
Canada and Greenland as Arctic partners
In recent years, Canada and Greenland have translated cultural proximity into practical cooperation. Diplomatic, economic and security ties between Ottawa and Nuuk have steadily deepened, reflecting shared interests in Arctic stability and sustainable development.
A defining moment came in 2022, when Canada and Denmark reached an agreement resolving the long-standing dispute over Hans Island, a tiny, uninhabited rock in the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island. The agreement split the island between the two countries, creating a new land border while emphasising cooperation over confrontation. It was widely hailed as a model for peaceful Arctic diplomacy.
Beyond symbolism, cooperation extends into defence and security through NATO, where Canada and Denmark work closely to monitor and protect the Arctic region amid growing geopolitical interest. Economic ties, though still limited, have expanded in areas such as fisheries, research and infrastructure.
Canada has also signalled its commitment to a stronger diplomatic presence in Greenland, including plans to open a consulate in Nuuk. Canadian officials have repeatedly emphasised respect for Greenland’s autonomy and the importance of listening to Inuit voices in shaping Arctic policy.
This approach, grounded in partnership, consultation and mutual respect, offers a sharp contrast to narratives that frame Greenland primarily as a strategic possession.
A Canada–Greenland Partnership
Against this backdrop, some analysts and policymakers have begun to discuss the idea of a deeper Canada–Greenland Partnership, not a merger or annexation, but a framework for closer economic, cultural and social cooperation.
Often compared to the Benelux model in Europe, such a partnership would rest on the principle of equality between Canada and Greenland. Its focus would be practical rather than symbolic: facilitating mobility for Inuit communities, supporting sustainable economic development, and strengthening Arctic resilience.
One frequently cited area is mobility. Greater freedom of movement for Inuit across Arctic Canada and Greenland could support traditional livelihoods, particularly for hunters and fishers whose cultural and economic activities have long transcended modern borders.
Economic cooperation could also play a role in Greenland’s efforts to develop its rare earth and other mineral resources responsibly. Canada, with its experience in resource regulation and Indigenous consultation, could offer technical support and investment that aligns with Greenlandic priorities, reducing dependence on distant and potentially unreliable supply chains.
Such a partnership would not replace Greenland’s existing ties to Denmark or Europe, nor would it undermine Canada’s sovereignty. Instead, it would reflect the realities of the Arctic: shared challenges, shared peoples and shared interests.
Crucially, it would be built on consent, the very principle absent from Trump’s annexation rhetoric.
Fazit
The renewed debate over Greenland’s future has revealed as much about global power politics as it has about the Arctic itself. Calls for annexation may generate headlines, but they ignore the lived realities of Greenland and the deep connections that bind it to its Arctic neighbours.
History, culture and governance all point to a simple conclusion: Greenland is not an extension of the United States, nor a geopolitical blank slate. It is an Inuit society with enduring ties to Canada, ties shaped by shared ancestry, language and experience.
As the Arctic grows in strategic importance, the choice facing policymakers is clear. They can pursue influence through acquisition and rhetoric, or they can build it through partnership and respect. Canada and Greenland, bound by geography and history, offer a compelling example of the latter.
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