Climate change, including a prospective seasonal ice-free Arctic Ocean, has generated increasing Asian interests in the Arctic due to a belief in the viability of new shipping routes and accessibility of raw materials. Especially China but also other Asian states have strived for obtaining the position as permanent observers in the Arctic Council that was, finally, granted at the Arctic Council meeting in May 2013. This has lent more legitimacy to all member states of the Arctic Council in dealing with geopolitical issues of the circumpolar North, but especially to the Nordic member states and not least to Denmark due to the salient interests of the rising Asian powers in the promising raw materials deposits in Greenland as a semi-autonomous territory within the realm of Denmark. On this background, the paper analyses whether this interest in Greenland also creates tensions between Denmark and Greenland on its road to further autonomy.