There was a full house at the Greenland Committee's closed meeting on Wednesday, where both members from Inatsisartut's Foreign and Security Policy Committee were invited, as were members from the Folketing's Defense, Community Security and Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Along the way, Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen also came in and participated in the meeting.
Experts from the Defence Academy
Peter Viggo Jakobsen and Anders Puck Nielsen from the Danish Defence Academy gave presentations on the partial agreements in relation to the low voltage target. In addition, Christian Keldsen, Director of Greenland Business, participated online.
Since it was a closed meeting, there is limited information that the chair of the Greenland Committee, Aaja Chemnitz (IA), can say after the meeting, but she confirms to Sermitsiaq that the meeting was about delving a little deeper into the Arctic packages and partial agreement 2.
– It has been important to me that we could discuss partial agreement 2 and perhaps also go into a little more detail together about what it means for Greenlandic society in terms of military strategy. Partial agreement 2 has shown that there is a need for more involvement of the population. We will focus on that in the coming time.
- In addition, there is also a need for more focus on the preparedness part, which I believe is lacking. But otherwise, I think we have the right approach in terms of focusing on sovereignty enforcement and low voltage, says Aaja Chemnitz, adding that a decision must also be made as to whether fighter jets, for example, should be based in Greenland or somewhere else.
Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen did not want to comment to Sermitsiaq about why he participated in the meeting, but according to several of the members at the meeting, his participation was about observing what was said and asked about.
Arctic packages meet US wishes
Associate Professor at the Danish Defence Academy Peter Viggo Jakobsen said after the meeting to Sermitsiaq that the exercise is aimed at increasing the defence's ability to see and hear what is happening in the Arctic, and thus comply with American wishes, without Russia feeling threatened to increase their presence in the Arctic.
– The challenge for the Commonwealth is that the great powers have become angry with each other again. The USA is sitting and guarding Russia, and Russia is guarding the USA. And the USA has told Denmark that Denmark is a bad ally that needs to have more control over the airspace and sea around Greenland.
- With Arctic capacity packages 1 and 2, the defense's ability to see and hear what is happening around Greenland is increased with more aircraft, ships and radars. This is in response to the US's hope that they will refrain from rearming in and around Greenland. Our concern is that if the US rearms, Russia will see it as a threat, and then we will not be able to maintain low tension around Greenland.
According to Peter Viggo Jakobsen, there is currently high voltage around Norway and the Barents Sea, but still low voltage around Greenland, because the US has done nothing but install a new heating plant at Pituffik.
– But the unknown factor is still that we don't know what the US actually wants with Greenland, says Peter Viggo Jakobsen.
