The head of Greenland’s diplomacy today took over the presidency of the Arctic Council, the main field of transnational cooperation in the region until 2022, in a diplomatic environment that has become sensitive due to Greenland’s tensions and Russia’s exclusion.

Council’s diplomatic activity, which includes the US, Canada and the five Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark (including Greenland and the islands of Faros), Finland and Iceland) is inactive after its 20th suspension. Scientific work meetings were also interrupted in 2022, and resumed in February 2024.

“In the present geopolitical environment, it is particularly important to maintain a forum for all Arctic states and indigenous peoples in the area,” said Espen Bart Eide, Norwegian Foreign Minister and outgoing President of the Arctic Council in a statement.

Vivian Motsfeld, Foreign Minister and Research of Greenland – Denmark’s autonomous territory – was appointed to take over the Council presidency on behalf of the Denmark kingdom, which includes Denmark, the islands of Faros and Greenland, according to the text.

“We do not want to be Danish or Americans,” the minister repeated before the reporters on the issue of tensions with the US after returning to the power of Donald Trump, who wants to conquer Greenland.

For the next two years, the Denmark presidency has set five priorities for this region that is heated four times faster than the rest of the planet: the peoples and communities of Arctic indigenous, sustainable economic growth and energy transition, the ocean, the ocean.

Since its establishment in 1996, the Arctic Council has been a major area of ​​cooperation in an area where the accelerated retreat, due to overheating, opens economic opportunities (hydrocarbons, minerals, fishing) and maritime roads promising, but which can threaten one.