News for Trump: Denmark’s last envoy to Greenland says U.K. may have first dibs

If President Trump tries to buy or annex Greenland, he could face a competing claim from an old ally: Britain.

That’s according to Tom Høyem, 83, who served as Denmark’s last minister for the autonomous territory of Greenland from 1982 to 1987, after which the position was discontinued. He has visited the island 46 times, wrote a book about it and says he considers Trump’s interest “very positive and very constructive” for its defense.

Greenland is rich in rare earth minerals and uranium, and may prove strategic for global shipping routes, as Arctic ice melts with climate change. Even though Danish officials have said Greenland is not for sale, Trump keeps repeating his desire for it, telling reporters Saturday, “I think we’re going to have it.”

Høyem says Britain may actually have right of first refusal, based on diplomatic talks that happened more than a century ago, resulting in a 1917 treaty between the U.S. and Denmark. The British government was involved in those talks because of Greenland’s proximity to Canada, which at the time was governed by Britain.

The treaty outlines a deal in which the U.S. purchased a cluster of Caribbean islands — now called the U.S. Virgin Islands — from Denmark for $25 million, in exchange for recognition of Danish sovereignty over Greenland. It was signed by then-President Woodrow Wilson and his secretary of state, Robert Lansing.

“I do not know why President Trump’s civil servants have not shown him the document that his predecessor President Wilson signed — this official document — that says Greenland has been, and will always be, Danish,” Høyem told NPR in a phone interview Monday from Germany, where he now lives.

The final text of the 1917 treaty makes no mention of any British role. But Høyem, who is an expert on Greenland’s history, says British support for the treaty was contingent upon this point.

“The idea was that if Denmark ever got the stupid idea to sell Greenland, then United Kingdom had the first right to buy it or be consulted on its future — because of Canada,” he says.

NPR has asked the British Library and U.K. National Archives for copies of any declassified diplomatic cables that might support Høyem’s account, but has not yet heard back.

Another expert on the Arctic tells NPR she’s never heard of any such British claim. It hasn’t been part of any mainstream academic or diplomatic conversations, she says.

“We live in a world of rules-based order,” says Jennifer Spence, director of the Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. “If we started opening up historical agreements on all former colonies of different countries, things would get pretty chaotic pretty quickly.”

“Russia could come to the U.S. and ask for Alaska back,” she told NPR by phone from a conference in Norway.

As for British officials, no matter what their predecessors may or may not have said in the lead-up to this 1917 treaty, they are unlikely to get involved in any current discussions over Greenland’s future. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has repeatedly downplayed Trump’s claims.

In response to an NPR query, the U.K. Foreign Office wrote in an email Monday that it considers Greenland to be part of Denmark, and that its future status is a matter for the people and government of Greenland, and the kingdom of Denmark.

NPR also contacted the Danish prime minister’s office, the Danish Foreign Ministry and the Greenland Committee in Denmark’s Parliament for comment about Høyem’s account — but has not yet heard back.

For its part, Greenland has asserted its right to self-determination, and most Greenlanders favor independence from Denmark. One recent poll with a small sample size showed a majority favor joining the United States.

But Høyem says many Greenlanders are “irritated” with Trump’s talk of a takeover.

“It’s a U.S. businessman’s way of operating,” he says. “We are modern people now, and to use the words ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ — that’s a ghost from the past.”