Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s governor general, Mary Simon, and its foreign minister, Anita Anand, will visit Greenland in early February.
Carney said the trip was planned as U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his call for the United States to take control of Greenland, an Inuit self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark. Trump has also previously talked about making Canada the 51st state.
Carney said Canada’s and Denmark’s future in Greenland is for Denmark’s people to decide. “The future of Greenland and Denmark are decided solely by the people of Denmark,” Carney said Tuesday while meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at Canada’s embassy in Paris.
Anand posted a video of the meeting on social media and said she will be in Nuuk, Greenland, in the coming weeks to officially open Canada’s consulate. In her post, Anand said the move is meant to “mark a concrete step in strengthening our engagement in support of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland.”
Simon became Canada’s first Indigenous governor general in 2021 and is of Inuk descent. The governor general is the representative of Britain’s King Charles III, who is head of state in Canada, which is a member of the Commonwealth of former colonies.
Simon’s office said the visit is expected at the prime minister’s request. “At the request of the Prime Minister, the Governor General is expected to visit the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland. Our two nations share a 3,000 km (1,864 mile) maritime border, as well as deep historical and cultural connections between Inuit communities,” the office said in an email.
Greenland is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people, and about 80% of the island lies above the Arctic Circle. The planned Canadian consulate opening is expected to take place in Nuuk, where Anand and Simon will be present.
The comments and visit plans come amid international pushback from European allies who joined Denmark’s Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty. Leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Frederiksen on Tuesday in issuing a statement that reaffirmed the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people.” Greenland is part of the NATO military alliance.
Frederiksen and Carney were in Paris for talks described as a “coalition of the willing” meeting on Ukraine, but Carney made a point of meeting with Frederiksen and NATO’s secretary-general ahead of those sessions. Frederiksen told Carney that both had been clear in their statements about respecting national sovereignty and that together with NATO allies they could secure the Arctic region. “You have been very clear in your statement when it comes to the respect for national sovereignty,” Frederiksen said, adding, “We are both into securing the Arctic region and together with all our NATO allies we can secure the region, so hopefully everybody is willing to work together.”
In the United States, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should be part of the United States despite Frederiksen’s warning that a U.S. takeover would amount to the end of NATO. Trump has argued that the U.S. needs to control Greenland to ensure the security of NATO territory in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic. “It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Carney said he has made Arctic security a priority, telling reporters earlier in Paris that Canada is making progress within NATO but more is needed. “We are making progress within NATO but we have to do more,” Carney said.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Canada showing solidarity with Greenland’s people is important. He said Canada is a major Arctic country and has an incentive to stand for international law and against what he described as Trump-style bullying and aggression, but he said Carney also wants to avoid upsetting Trump because a free trade agreement between the two major trading partners is being renegotiated this year.