Arne O. Holm says The Sun Is Returning to Longyearbyen. In Donald Trump’s Head, the Lights Are off for Good.

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For many, Longyearbyen is an exotic and perhaps unattainable destination up by the North Pole somewhere. For others, about 2,500 people, Longyearbyen is home. An international melting pot in which Norwegians comprise just over 60 percent.

Undeniably Norwegian

Svalbard is Norwegian, undeniably Norwegian, but with a Russian settlement a few miles away by snowmobile from Longyearbyen. Right now, Longyearbyen is under the Polar Night. A proper Polar Night. The sun has dipped 27,5 degrees below the horizon.

Astronomical darkness, where even twilight is absent.

Yet, Polar Night or not, it will never be as dark as within the heads of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

And the question of what these two, together or apart, could do to Svalbard is what brought me here. Many want answers, even to questions for which there are no definite answers.

While I was packing my backpack, Danish authorities were meeting with the US Vice President, J.D. Vance, to discuss Greenland's future.

A few hours earlier, the Croatian president, a member of both NATO and the EU, presented Svalbard as an alternative to the US president's menu.

A sort of add-on to a resume, for someone desperately hunting for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Or a modern version of Three Billy Goats Gruff. Don't take me, take the one further east instead.

Got a committee

A pipe-smoking Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, emerged from the meeting in Washington, along with his colleague from Greenland, Vivian Motzfeldt.

Apparently happy having survived, because the US administration had not budged an inch in its desire to take control over Greenland, whatever the cost.

The Danes got a committee.

The Danish ministers know just as well as everyone else that Trump does not discuss his decisions in committees. Not even the most absurd ones.

But even more took place during the journey to Longyearbyen. A number of NATO countries, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the UK, have either decided to send or are considering sending military forces to Greenland. 

That is how they will demonstrate to the US administration that they take Greenland's security seriously.

However, the chance of meeting US soldiers is higher than that of meeting Russians or Chinese. But you can't say that out loud.

Svalbard in the mix?

In news articles and on national TV, an acknowledged Norwegian professor, Janne Haalan Matlary, has advocated for Denmark to hand over Greenland to the US. Unlike the Croatian president, she has yet to add Svalbard to the mix.

Her arguments that it is futile to fight against the US can just as well be used if Russia decided to take Svalbard.

To what extent the discussion about Greenland and the US is transferable to Svalbard depends on what one emphasizes.

The strategic importance of the island communities is similar. On the other hand, Greenland has extensive autonomy, also to a certain extent within foreign and security policy, something that is lacking in Svalbard. Unlike in Greenland, there is no indigenous population in Svalbard.

Greenland is militarized to a high degree, including with US forces, while the Svalbard Treaty essentially forbids such activities.

Greenland's southernmost point is at about the same latitude as Oslo and Stockholm, while its northernmost point is just over six degrees from the North Pole. That's about the same distance as from Norway's northernmost point to the southernmost point of Spitsbergen, the island where Longyearbyen is located.

The northernmost point is at about 80 degrees north.

People without significance

The flight from Copenhagen to Nuuk takes almost 5 hours, while the flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen takes about 3 hours. In other words, the communities share distance to the power centres.

If the US were to take over Greenland, it would have gotten almost 98 percent of the Kingdom's area. It is, according to increasing speculation, the most important reason for Trump's appetite. The size of it.

Svalbard and Jan Mayen comprise only about 15 percent of Norway's area, making them perhaps too small for Trump, but sufficient for Putin?

Neither of the two despots cares about the people living in these Arctic outskirts. The people who take responsibility for national sovereignty every day. The Greenlandic population has lived in constant stress under Donald Trump.

Now it might be Svalbard's turn, as if the inhabitants do not have enough worries for everyday life, dependent on electricity and water. But the inhabitants know where they live.

Return of the sun

They also know that you can trade between countries. But you don't trade people. People are not for sale.

The preliminary offer from Trump for a Greenlander is around NOK 1 million. As expensive as a Tesla, in other words.

I am thinking about all this while sitting in the dark of Longyearbyen. I know the sun will return here.

It always does.

March 8th is the official sun day and from there, it quickly gets light 24/7.

In the heads of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the lights are off for good.

The fuse has blown, and the short circuit is complete.