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GREENLAND

Cruise ship still stranded off Greenland after running aground

All passengers and staff on board a cruise ship that ran aground two days ago off northeast Greenland are doing well under the circumstances, Denmark's Arctic Command said on Wednesday.

Published: 13 September 2023 14:58 CEST
Cruise ship still stranded off Greenland after running aground
Passengers and staff have been stuck aboard the grounded cruise ship off Greenland since Monday. Photo: SIRIUS/Arktisk Kommando/Ritzau Scanpix

The ship, which has 206 passengers and crew members on board, ran aground in the remote Alpefjord on Monday afternoon.

Attempts by the ship to break free have so far been without success.

No injuries were reported on the ship, Denmark’s navy said on Tuesday.

“The Ocean Explorer ran aground Monday in the Alpefjord northeast of Greenland and has been unable to refloat itself,” a spokeswoman for the Danish navy’s Arctic Command in Greenland, Camilla Schouw Broholm, told AFP.

“There are no injuries and the vessel has not sustained any damage,” Schouw Broholm said.

“Our operations centre made contact with the ship. There are 206 passengers and crew on board,” she added.

The Arctic Command, whose patrol ship Knud Rasmussen was en route and due to reach the zone on Friday, has been in contact with other cruise ships in the vicinity as well as the Icelandic coast guard, which could come to the ship’s aid in the event of an emergency.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The cruise liner may be able to refloat itself during a high tide but there are few hydrological surveys of the area where the boat ran aground, making it difficult to assess the sea depths.

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GREENLAND

Greenland boycotts Nordic Council over ‘discrimination’

The Danish autonomous territory of Greenland said on Wednesday it was suspending participation in the Nordic Council cooperation forum due to the discrimination to which it says it is subjected.

Published: 10 May 2024 10:09 CEST
Greenland boycotts Nordic Council over 'discrimination'

Greenland complained it had been excluded from an upcoming meeting on foreign and security policy to which only ministers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — as well as non-Council member Germany — had been invited.

None of the Nordic region’s autonomous territories — Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Aland — had received invites.

“I cannot continue to participate in events where there is discrimination between the participants,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede wrote in an open letter sent late Tuesday to the current holder of the Nordic Council presidency, Sweden.

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He said he would reconsider Greenland’s suspension if the Nordic Council allowed it to “participate on equal terms with the other member states on all subjects — including foreign, security and defence policy subjects — in all Nordic Council forums.”

The decision comes amid strained relations between Copenhagen and Nuuk, the latter increasingly frustrated by Denmark’s control over Arctic issues.

The world’s largest island, located in the Arctic some 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) from Denmark, Greenland has its own flag, language, culture, institutions and prime minister. But it still relies heavily on a Danish grant, which makes up a quarter of its GDP and more than half of its public budget.

Defence, justice and foreign affairs are all decided by Copenhagen.

Last year, a Greenland commission presented a draft constitution to parliament, which the territory could use if it were to ever negotiate independence from Denmark.

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