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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