VZCZCXYZ0036
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHCP #0705/01 1381142
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181142Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2373
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/821ABG THULE AB GL//CC// PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUDKSR/EUCOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
RUPEAAS/21SPW PETERSON AFB CO PRIORITY

UNCLAS COPENHAGEN 000705 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PBTS SENV DA GL
SUBJECT: GREENLAND: AMB'S VISIT REINFORCES STRONGER TIES 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Ambassador Cain's recent five-day visit to 
Greenland confirmed that U.S. relations with this strategic, 
semi-autonomous territory are stronger than ever and no 
longer the bilateral irritant they once were with the Danish 
government.  Greenland Home Rule officials uniformly 
expressed satisfaction with ongoing work to broaden economic, 
scientific and cultural ties through the Joint Committee. 
While concerned about the potential fiscal impact of budget 
cuts at Thule Air Base, Home Rule officials appreciated the 
USG's early communication and transparency on this issue. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Home Rule government is eager to strengthen its 
ties with the USG and appears ready to welcome U.S. 
investment in its potential oil, mineral, and hydropower 
resources.  Despite considerable public skepticism, 
Greenland's political leadership continues to dream of 
further autonomy, and even independence.  In that vein, 
Greenland's political class perceives stronger U.S. ties as 
vital to diminishing the world's largest island's 
overwhelming dependence on Denmark.  While Greenland leaders' 
dreams of independence are still economically implausible, 
the trend of increased autonomy, including greater influence 
on Danish decision-making on policies affecting Greenland, is 
likely to continue.  In an area that is a focal point of 
climate change research, the Ambassador vigorously defended 
U.S. efforts on global warming.  End Summary 
 
---------------------- 
Three Towns, Five Days 
---------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) Ambassador Cain visited Nuuk, Ilulissat, and 
Kangerlussuaq May 8-12 to advance Joint Committee efforts to 
broaden U.S. relations with Greenland and to strengthen 
public support for America's base presence at Thule.  In 
Nuuk, the Ambassador met with senior political leaders, 
including Premier Hans Enoksen and Deputy Premier Josef 
Motzfeldt.  The Ambassador also spoke separately to 
university students and the Nuuk Rotary Club and gave 
interviews to the local media.  Home Rule Permanent Secretary 
Kaj Kleist joined the Ambassador in his visit to Ilulissat, 
where the Ambassador met with municipal leaders and advanced 
ongoing efforts to conclude a sister park relationship 
between the Ilulissat World Heritage Park area and the Cape 
Krusenstern National Monument in Alaska.  In Kangarlussuaq, 
the Ambassador met with members of the New York 109th Air 
National Guard and Veco Polar Resources for briefings on 
their operations in support of U.S.-funded scientific 
research on the Greenland ice cap.  Ambassador Cain was 
accompanied by polmiloff. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Thule: Watchful Understanding of Budget Cuts 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Senior Greenland Home Rule leaders all expressed 
concern about the potential economic impact of Thule budget 
cuts.  At the same time, they expressed appreciation that the 
USG has been open and transparent as it considers potential 
cost savings.  Noting that Thule is "a vital part of the 
Greenland economy," Premier Hans Enoksen said that he hoped 
the Defense Department would be mindful of the effect of 
budget savings on Greenlanders at the base.  Deputy Premier 
Motzfeldt said that tax revenues from the base, which he 
estimated to be DKK 60-70 million a year, are an important 
part of Home Rule fiscal planning.  In follow-on 
conversations, Acting Director of Foreign Affairs Inuuteq 
Holm Olsen said he was satisfied with the USG's update on 
this issue provided at the most recent Greenland Permanent 
Committee meeting in Washington. 
 
¶5. (SBU) While cautioning that the USG needs to cut costs at 
many bases around the world, including Thule, Ambassador Cain 
stressed that Thule remains strategically relevant with 
special base maintenance needs due to its remote location. 
He also urged Home Rule officials to view the relationship 
with the United States more broadly and to keep in mind the 
potential benefits of our increased cooperation through the 
Joint Committee.  An increase in trade, private commercial 
investment, and tourism between the United States and 
Greenland, he noted, could help offset lost tax revenues due 
to adjustments of the base maintenance contract at Thule. 
The Ambassador underscored these same points in his comments 
to the media and drew a sharp distinction between potential 
cuts at Thule and the Keflavik decision. 
Joint Committee Paying Dividends 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Home Rule officials uniformly lauded the Joint 
Committee process for expanding and broadening relations 
between the United States and Greenland and pledged to work 
closely with their American and Danish counterparts to 
produce concrete "deliverables".  Deputy Premier Motzfeldt 
said he is pleased that Greenland is now "on the map" in 
Washington.  He expressed particular interest in attracting 
U.S. private investment and in concluding a reciprocal 
taxation agreement. (Greenland has such agreements with 
Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.)  Kaj Kleist, head of 
the Home Rule's Joint Committee delegation, expressed 
confidence that the May 30-31 Copenhagen meeting would be a 
success. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Air Greenland CEO Flemming Knudsen said planning 
continues to open a seasonal summer air route between BWI 
Airport and Kangarlussuaq starting in May 2007.  Numerous 
political and business leaders expressed hope that the first 
commercial air route between the U.S. and Greenland would 
foster increased trade and tourism.  Minister of Fisheries 
and Hunting Finn Karlsen reiterated Greenland's interest in 
exporting musk ox and reindeer to the U.S.  He also said 
Greenland is interested in finding U.S. markets for Greenland 
shrimp ("Greenland gold").  The Ilulissat museum director 
agreed to try to launch a sister park relationship with Cape 
Krusenstern National Monument in Alaska as soon as possible. 
 
-------------- 
Climate Change 
-------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Both Premier Enoksen and Deputy Premier Motzfeldt 
discussed global warming with the Ambassador.  In addition, 
university students asked a number of questions related to 
the USG's environmental policies.  In the Ambassador's 
meetings, press interviews, and speaking engagements, Amb. 
Cain reviewed ongoing U.S. efforts to address climate change 
stressing the USG's intensive research program, commitment to 
alternate energy, and dedication to developing new, green 
technologies.  He made these same points in Ilulissat, one of 
the most prominent sites for climate change research where 
one of the world's fastest moving glaciers continues to 
recede. 
 
--------------------- 
The Next Micro-State? 
--------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) While conceding their continued dependence on grant 
aid from Denmark and without a fixed timetable in mind, 
senior Greenland leaders nevertheless almost uniformly 
volunteered interest in securing more autonomy, if not 
independence, from Denmark.  Senior Greenland officials now 
openly and routinely refer to Greenland as a "country." 
Greenland Minister of Mineral Resources Jorgen Waever 
Johannsen told the Ambassador that Greenland, with only 
56,000 inhabitants, is "just one big oil strike" away from 
being able to support itself economically.  Johannsen said 
China is expressing increasing interest in Greenland's 
potential energy resources.   At the same time, the Home Rule 
government is considerin consolidating its 18 municipalities 
into four cunties in order to accrue significant much-needed 
public spending savings.  Greenlandic nationalism s woven 
into educational and cultural programmin. 
 
¶10. (SBU) While Greenland's political elites ppear 
determined to secure more autonomy, the poulation may not be 
as enthusiastic.  The Danish government's senior 
representative in the Greenland capital, High Commissioner 
Soren Hald Moeller, told the Ambassador that he believed 
young people were more interested in having the Home Rule 
government tackle Greenland's significant social problems 
than in pursuing independence.  The 10,000 resident Danes 
working in Greenland tend to be even more skeptical.  In 
blunt remarks before the Ambassador's speech, one ethnic Dane 
Rotarian compared Greenland's political elites to 
"irresponsible teenagers" who would return Greenland to the 
"days of peat houses and tuberculosis."  Even the most ardent 
nationalists in Greenland concede that there is no public 
appetite for achieving independence at the cost of 
eliminating the generous Danish subsidy that underwrites the 
island's economic viability. 
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Comment 
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¶11. (SBU) In a few years time, a joint Denmark-Greenland 
commission is slated to recommend changes to the 1979 Home 
Rule Act.  As a result of this ongoing process, Greenland is 
likely to assume new police and judiciary powers as well as a 
bigger share of the rights to its subsoil resources.  The 
informal devolution of bargaining power on foreign and 
security matters involving Greenland that was apparent during 
the Thule radar negotiations is likely to be made even more 
formal.  Greenland already has its own representative at the 
Danish Embassy in Brussels to negotiate fishing agreements 
with the EU (Greenland is not part of the EU), and it may one 
day send a representative to the Danish Embassy in Washington 
or Danish Consulate in New York City. 
 
¶12. (SBU)  Nevertheless, so long as Greenland depends on 
generous Danish grant aid, it is unlikely Greenland will 
achieve full independence.  Greenland's most determined 
nationalists are ironically some of the biggest enthusiasts 
of developing the island's oil, gas, and hydropower 
potential.  At the same time, should Greenland ever strike 
oil and achieve independence, the United States would have as 
the host nation for Thule a country inclined to be 
sympathetic to NAM positions rather than one of our 
staunchest NATO allies.  Continued attention to the Joint 
Committee process is a low-cost, high-impact investment that 
should continue to pay short term dividends.  It may also 
prove essential in the longterm to protect USG strategic 
interests on an easily overlooked North American neighbor. 
CAIN