The huge subsidy you're talking about accounts for about 3% of the annual Faroese GDP. It's gone down from 11.2% since 2000.
From my perspective, it seems like most Danish people have a very uneducated perspective of the Faroese dependence.
The infrastructure, I am referring to, was built several decades ago (with the exception of some newer additions that was built by the Faroese themselves, like the Norðoyatunnilin), at a time where the Faroese GDP was much lower.
In particular, Denmark had to bail out the Faroese Islands during their financial crisis from 1989 to 1995, through loans.
When I say 'reliant' on Denmark, I don't mean in direct financial terms. I mean in terms of foreign, military and judicial dependence. In 2005, Denmark gave the Faroese government permission to establish Faroese missions within Danish embassies. That's a huge advantage to them, being able to use existing Danish infrastructure for their foreign endeavours.
Indeed, the agreement of 2005, the so-called "Fámjin Declaration", has practically eased tensions between Denmark and the Faroese Islands, and calls for independence gets very little press time any more.
And lastly, the subsidy you refer to is just the subsidy in direct cash from the Danish government, there are several other ways Denmark supports the Faroese, both nationally and internationally, which value would probably be far larger than the subsidy itself. To summarise; it is an advantage for the Faroese Islands to remain part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
This sounds like any number of conversations with ill-informed voters around the world. I suppose we’re all under-informed on topics but I try to shut up about it when I am.
Unless war never returns to Europe in which case I worry needlessly.
Look, the Faroe Islands do get a lot out of being so intimately tied to to Denmark, but let's not oversell it, OK?
It's just a question of "someone's going to take it, so we should take it first".. similar to the british and subsequent american occupation of Iceland.
This is true of most countries in the Caribbean, but being close to a big, heavily armed, friendly world power (as the Faroes are to the UK) is usually sufficient.