Center-Right Pro-Independence Party Wins Power in Greenland

A pro-independence party has won Greenland's general election. The result comes as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to annex the territory.

Transcript

00:00Greenland's center-right pro-independence party has won the Danish territory's general

00:06elections.

00:08The result of the vote comes as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to annex the island.

00:12This year's election focused on business development and mining.

00:34Greenland is home to just around 57,000 people and has been an autonomous Danish territory

00:38since 1953.

00:40It's recently found itself at the center of an Arctic power struggle.

00:44The United States views the region as vital to its national security.

00:47And China and Russia are increasing their military presence nearby.

00:50It's about natural resources and it's about Greenland's geostrategic location exactly

00:56in the middle in the Arctic, in the middle between North America and Russia.

01:01So the shortest distance for nuclear weapons, nuclear missiles from Russia to North America

01:09would go via the North Pole and via Greenland.

01:12The winning Democratic Party has firmly rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's offer for Greenland

01:17to join the U.S., with polls showing 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose the idea.

01:22But the party's push for mining reforms has many worried it could give the U.S. more access

01:26to the island's resources.

01:28Many residents also worry that the party's push for slow independence may not be ideal,

01:33amid rising geopolitical competition in the region.

01:36It is important, but I don't think it's going to happen now, especially with how the world

01:40is.

01:41I think if we become independent right now, America is going to take over.

01:46As Greenland votes for a party that wants to move slowly towards independence, it's

01:50balancing economic growth with national sovereignty.

01:53With global powers eyeing the territory, the island is moving towards both change and an

01:58uncertain future.

02:00Hank Shi and Chelsea Wu for Taiwan Plus.