Greenland’s Independence Referendum Is Years Away, Lawmaker Says

(Bloomberg) -- Greenland, thrown into the geopolitical limelight amid renewed interest from Donald Trump, may still need several years to arrange a referendum on independence, according to a senior lawmaker in the Danish parliament.

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Aaja Chemnitz, who chairs the Greenland committee in the Nordic country’s legislature, spoke on Monday after recent comments by the semi-autonomous island’s prime minister, Mute B. Egede, on loosening ties with Denmark. Egede has in the past weeks stepped up his rhetoric and indicated an independence ballot could be coming in the next four-year election period.

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“It will take a commission that will take at least two years” for Greenland to figure out a model for its development, Chemnitz said in an interview on the sidelines of the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso, Norway.

“Then it’s up to the Danish parliament to have that dialog. It might take years as well. And then you’ll have a referendum perhaps after that, no one knows,” she said. “I don’t think that you can necessarily say that within the four years there will be a referendum.”

Chemnitz said Greenland also needs to diversify ties with other partners, such as the European Union, to strengthen its economy. The trade bloc should be “engaging much more in Greenland,” including by guaranteeing purchases of different rare earth minerals as a way to attract investors, she said.

“If we only talk about it as legal independence, and not as economic independence, it won’t necessarily be sustainable.”

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