U.S. President Donald Trump with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)
On Friday, February 6, the new Canadian Consulate of Greenland opened in Nuuk. The consulate wasn't a new idea; it had been planned for over a year. But the consulate, according to Politico reporters Mike Blanchfield and Calder McHugh, is taking on a new significance in light of U.S. President Donald Trump's push to make Greenland part of the United States — and symbolizes tensions between the Trump Administration and Canada.
During a speech at the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney lamented that there has been a "rupture" in relations between the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. And in an article published on February 11, Blanchfield and McHugh stress that the "timing" of the new consulate "is not lost on anyone" in Nuuk following Carney's "bracing talk" in Davos.
During a business trip to Nuuk, Danish therapist/psychologist Peter Mortensen told Politico, "I talk to more people up here who say that our original belief that we can trust the United States and that they will always be there, they're a strong force in the world — that has been shattered really seriously."
Mortensen is concerned about how Trump will respond to the consulate, telling Politicio, "Donald Trump is so unpredictable that whatever he takes as a personal insult, he can make into a geopolitical crisis."
Carney, in Davos, declared that Canada will "stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland's future." And Blanchfield and McHugh point out that Canada is "poised to take a second step in that direction when Carney signs a defense co-operation agreement with Denmark at the Munich Security Conference."
"His speech was the start of what is already being called the Carney Doctrine: Creative, coalitional strength abroad that can add up to a seat at the table with the likes of the United States, Russia and China," the Politico journalists explain. "And in Greenland on Friday, Canada quite literally planted a flag, inserting themselves into a geopolitical fight in the Arctic."
