Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The US officials are rushing to come up with options
Speaker 2: for business deals and other ways to step up links
Speaker 2: to Greenland after President Trump's renewed demand to take over
Speaker 2: the island. The Foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland are
Speaker 2: due to meet with US Section of State Marco Rubio
Speaker 2: in Washington next week, joining US now as madss fist Friedrichson,
Speaker 2: who is executive director for the Arctic Economic Council. Mad's
Speaker 2: good to have you on the program today. Thank you
Speaker 2: for your time, because we'd like to understand what the
Speaker 2: view of business is in Greenland about the Trump administration's
Speaker 2: determination that it wants Greenland to be part of the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nice to be here on call. It's very uncertain
Speaker 1: times and all you can say that, and this doesn't
Speaker 1: only go for for Greenland, but across the Arctic region.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of uncertainty at them, and uncertainty that's
Speaker 1: poison for any companies. I just spoke with a group
Speaker 1: of companies in Greenland the other day and they said
Speaker 1: that everything is put on hold at the moment. They're
Speaker 1: not making any decisions until there's small clarification about their future.
Speaker 3: What is the I suppose, how does that affect things
Speaker 3: like investment, business planning, How do the day to day
Speaker 3: operations of these companies I suppose move forward when there's
Speaker 3: such geopolitical uncertainty.
Speaker 1: That's a good question, and I think it's important to
Speaker 1: remember that, you know, Greenland is still home to fifty
Speaker 1: six thousand people that wakes up every day and go
Speaker 1: to work, so yes, they will continue life. Similar to
Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic being a major disruptor for companies, they
Speaker 1: were still operating and they will still operate. There are still,
Speaker 1: you know, uncertainties around for example, law scale investments. There's
Speaker 1: certain uncertainties around you know where, also defense investments for example.
Speaker 1: So right now it's just very dificult to plan ahead.
Speaker 1: The day to day operations is still the same. You know,
Speaker 1: ninety seven percent of Greenland's export is from fisheries. Those
Speaker 1: fishing vessels are still out there fishing. What is interesting though,
Speaker 1: is the US market is not a particularly big market.
Speaker 1: It's actually a very very tiny market for the Greenlandic economy. Europe, China,
Speaker 1: even Canada is much bigger than the US. So some people,
Speaker 1: not all, but some people do see it as an
Speaker 1: opportunity though, to expand into new markets in the US.
Speaker 2: That's interesting given the kind of comments not ruling out
Speaker 2: the use of military force. Also, we've had further comments
Speaker 2: about the idea of Greenland being bought by the US
Speaker 2: or quote, some sort of financial arrangement, as the US
Speaker 2: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested only yesterday. Do you
Speaker 2: get any sense that Greenlandic businesses might accept some kind
Speaker 2: of financial arrangement with the US.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean they, as the Greenlanders
Speaker 1: have been saying since twenty nineteen when we heard about
Speaker 1: this the first time, the Queen and the government and
Speaker 1: businesses said, you know, Greenland is not for sale, but
Speaker 1: it's open for business. There is a strong sense, and
Speaker 1: this is all the statements built from the private sector
Speaker 1: and from the public sector, that Greenland belongs to its people.
Speaker 1: So this idea about a large real estate deal, as
Speaker 1: the President Trump called it in twenty nineteen, that's not
Speaker 1: of any interest to the businesses. They want to decide
Speaker 1: the future themselves. And that's also what Denmark has stated
Speaker 1: again and again on what Greenland has stated again and again.
Speaker 3: There have been reports of an influenced campaign by the
Speaker 3: US in Greenland. Do you hear about that from the
Speaker 3: businesses that you work with or is there a sense
Speaker 3: that those efforts are continuing.
Speaker 1: Very It's a good question, and it goes back to
Speaker 1: let me just zoom out briefly for the broad Arctic.
Speaker 1: There are HYPERD threats across the Arctic. You know, there's
Speaker 1: talks about Chinese, Russia and etc. Other outside nations influencing
Speaker 1: and wanting to get into the Arctic. The benefit of
Speaker 1: the Arctic is that we are quite small communities across
Speaker 1: the whole region. There are four million people living there,
Speaker 1: ten percent of its indigenous, which means it's very easy
Speaker 1: to see if suddenly someone from outside is trying to
Speaker 1: influence someone. We have seen, however, we have seen some
Speaker 1: attempts on digital manipulation or online manipulation of people. We
Speaker 1: saw some AI videos being spread a few years ago.
Speaker 1: We have seen some strains posts. We saw there was
Speaker 1: a fake document being shared that was supposed to look
Speaker 1: like it came from the Greenlandic government. It was completely
Speaker 1: made up. So we have seen some attempts, but we
Speaker 1: don't know what countries are behind it.
Speaker 2: Interesting, what is your view then, of what you want
Speaker 2: to see next and what businesses want to see next.
Speaker 2: There is this foreign minister's meeting that's happening next week
Speaker 2: that surely must be quite important. How do you think
Speaker 2: that the Danish government and indeed the EU, what should
Speaker 2: they be doing next?
Speaker 1: So first, I mean, yeah, we have to turn off
Speaker 1: this fire that is on at the moment, and we
Speaker 1: also need to remain calm and not to panic. And
Speaker 1: I think this is quite important right now that we
Speaker 1: still engage in the dialogue and we continue to look
Speaker 1: further ahead. We have over the past years already seen
Speaker 1: massive investments coming from is particularly Denmark has invested massively
Speaker 1: in for example, subse fiber optic cables, deep sea ports,
Speaker 1: expansion of ports, et cetera, expansion of one ways. So
Speaker 1: in the past few years, Denmark has invested massively in Greenland.
Speaker 1: We are also seeing growing interest from the European Union
Speaker 1: and I think this will continue. The European Union will
Speaker 1: update their Arctic policy in the coming months, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure security will play a role there. And also this
Speaker 1: whole idea about do use, and I think also we
Speaker 1: will at least the companies are asking for this. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you are investing more in defense, let's try to
Speaker 1: make sure it also benefit the communities there. So whatever
Speaker 1: we do in the Arctic, it has to have at
Speaker 1: least the dual use, quite often also a triple use.
Speaker 1: The Greenlandic economy is still massively challenged. There's fifty six
Speaker 1: thousand people. They expect to be forty six thousand people
Speaker 1: by twenty to fifty Gdpeak growth is rather low, and
Speaker 1: there is some structural challenges around the skilled workforce. So
Speaker 1: Greenland has a lot of challenges when it comes to
Speaker 1: be an attractive investment environment, not only because of US interest.
Speaker 1: So we have to deal with that long term.
Speaker 2: Our last thought, if you would, what I hear and
Speaker 2: read about Greenland is that there has been an attempt
Speaker 2: to be open with the US in terms of trying
Speaker 2: to get business deals. Why do you think there hasn't
Speaker 2: been more interest and more advancement, Let's say in my
Speaker 2: in other resources, we will know that Greenland is rich
Speaker 2: in mining resources, but actually getting them out of the ground,
Speaker 2: there's not that much going on to do that. With
Speaker 2: that openness, what do you think has been the hindrance
Speaker 2: so far to doing more business between the US and Greenland?
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what the companies are asking themselves as well.
Speaker 1: So there's currently one active mind one open mining Greenland.
Speaker 1: There are more than around fifty one hundred minds that
Speaker 1: could open if they just get an investor. We have
Speaker 1: seen some mining activity from the US in the south
Speaker 1: of Greenland the past year, but that's also the first
Speaker 1: time that's been so much activity. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it comes down that this is a political wish.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that the business society of community in
Speaker 1: the US has this interesting Greenland. This is from the
Speaker 1: top of the political level. And that also reflected that
Speaker 1: it is very hard to tell companies where to go
Speaker 1: and invest if there is not a good investment case. Generally,
Speaker 1: Greenland is challenged by lack of infrastructure, small populations, so
Speaker 1: economy of scale is a challenge, but it does have
Speaker 1: opportunities within for example tourism, and we have seen a
Speaker 1: few US investors, for example, investing in hotels in Greenland,
Speaker 1: but it is at a very very small level. But
Speaker 1: this is not only about the US not investing too
Speaker 1: much in Greenland. This is international companies and investors around
Speaker 1: the world. A lot of people are talking about Greenland
Speaker 1: not too many people are investing in Greenland, and this
Speaker 1: is not helping what is happening at the moment.