Faroe Islands, the geopolitical soccer ball that world powers want to tie the knot on: “The Cold War is back”

The crisis that Greenland is going through further encourages another Danish territory wishes to have its “own state”. And this is the case of the Faroe Islands.

According to the newspaper The New York Times, The inhabitants of this Danish region located in the North Atlantic have been longing for independence.

China and Russia target

The archipelago is divided into 18 islands, characterized by their beauty and the strong winds that hit them. They have their own “complex” history, which worsens with the conflict that engulfs its neighboring islandGreenland, with the White House guest after his attempted control.

With a population of 55,000 inhabitants, the Faroe Islands have become the goal of world superpowersas is the case of China or Russia.

European fishing fleets, American warships and Russian submarines navigate these waters. In fact, years ago, a Chinese company tried to take over the archipelago’s telecommunications system.

“Solid” local economy

It seems like an idyllic place. Where everything works like clockwork. With capital precision. The New York newspaper highlights the culinary specialty: fermented lamb. As well as the salmon exported through their farms that they bill a billion dollars all over the world.

Another notable point of the Danish islands is the traffic. It circulates “fluently” through the “impressive” network of tunnels that the archipelago has to offer. Even a roundabout has been built under the sea.

Unlike Greenland, which is “heavily” dependent on Danish subsidies, the Faroe Islands have developed a “solid local economy”.

The Faroese live with a “high standard of living and with the means to become independent from Denmark and embark on your own path. According to the American newspaper, the independence movement has been on the rise in recent years.

“Cold war”

Trump’s plan to seize Greenland from Denmark set off all the alarms. This act brought the region closer to its colonizer. And the Faroe Islands suspended negotiations with Copenhagen about “greater autonomy.”

“Greenland and Denmark are in a bad situation,” said Faroese Prime Minister Aksel V. Johannesen. “There is broad political agreement that our relationship with Denmark must change“added the president.

Geopolitical analysts watch these islands closely, even though they attract less attention than Greenland. “The old Cold War is coming back”commented Hogni Hoydal, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Faroe Islands and one of the most prominent voices of the independence movement. “And we are in the center,” he added.

Key naval point

The Faroe Islands are located in one of the most important naval “chokepoints” in the world. Likewise, it is one of the Russia’s main routes between the Arctic and the Atlantic.

The GIUK Gap waterway is named after the regions surrounding it: Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. It has 320 kilometers wide at its narrowest point and is used by NATO.

The Atlantic alliance intensified patrols there last year, as well as through the Russian nuclear submarines which departed from Murmansk, Moscow’s main submarine base in the Arctic area.

The Faroe Islands “are disproportionately important“said Troy J. Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Although J. Bouffard compared the size of the Greenlandic population to that of an American suburb, the archipelago is located “in the middle of one of the most important transit points for our main adversary”: China.

Huawei and war in Ukraine

In 2019, China tried to get its telecos, Huawei, modernize the island network in exchange for an increase in bilateral trade relations.

The Trump Administration declared the company a “threat” to national security. This put “enormous pressure” on Faroese politicians to stop the entity from operating there.

Based on the information released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Faroe Islands, several American submarines and ships of other NATO countries have appeared in the ports of the region.

After the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, most European countries refuse to allow Russian ships to dock in their ports. But The Faroe Islands did not put this veto on Moscow.

Some Faroese politicians fear that Russia is using the ships to carry out surveillance or even plan sabotage. Several major undersea cables in Scandinavia and the Baltic have been cut in recent years, and Russia remains the prime suspect.

“Really we don’t know what the Russian ships are doing“said Sjurdur Skaale, representative of the Faroe Islands in the Danish Parliament.