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The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, the Arctic island’s leading environmental and natural-resource research centre, is halting new collaboration with US partners to protect its data and scientists.
“I can confirm that we… made the decision to only engage in projects with US partners that we already are or have been working with,” Josephine Nymand, director of the institute, told news agency AFP.
The decision comes amid tension over US President Donald Trump’s vows to seize the mineral-rich island.
In an interview with Greenland’s public broadcaster, KNR, she said the decision was based on a need to protect the institute’s data and scientists, citing the Trump administration’s deletion of troves of scientific data and refusal to allow some foreign scientists into the United States.
“I can’t do much to help our compatriots if they are detained” on arrival in the United States, she told KNR.
“That’s why we decided the best thing was not to go there in the current situation.”
The decision comes amid renewed tensions over Greenland.
Last week, Trump revived his claim from earlier this year that Greenland, the semi-autonomous Arctic territory of Denmark, “should be controlled by the United States”, apparently reversing months of diplomacy earlier this year to get him to drop the demand.
Reports and data on climate and the environment have been targeted for large-scale deletion from government websites.
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources carries out research on Arctic ecosystems and monitors the island’s environment and biological resources.
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