Why Trump Covets Greenland

Location, location, location: Greenland’s position supra nan Arctic Circle makes nan world’s largest land a cardinal portion of information strategy.

Increasing world tensions, world warming and nan changing world system person put Greenland astatine nan bosom of nan statement complete world waste and acquisition and security, and U.S. President Trump wants to make judge his state controls nan mineral-rich land that guards nan Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.

Trump’s repeated demands for nan territory and threats to return it by unit person rattled nan NATO confederation and discomfited European friends who person agelong relied connected nan U.S. arsenic a partner successful their defense.

Greenland is simply a self-governing territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. state that has rejected Trump’s overtures.

Greenland’s ain authorities opposes U.S. designs connected nan island, saying nan group of Greenland will determine their ain future.

The island, 80% of which lies supra nan Arctic Circle, is location to astir 56,000 mostly Inuit group who until now person been mostly ignored by nan remainder of nan world.

Here’s why Trump covets Greenland, and why it is strategically important successful nan Arctic:

Trump says America needs Greenland for security

Trump has mulled territorial description via Greenland, Canada and Venezuela during his 2nd term. But of nan three, he comes backmost to Greenland astir often, arguing that it is basal for U.S. information to beryllium successful power of nan Arctic island.

“Greenland is very important to nan United States, but it’s not important to Denmark,” Trump said Wednesday during a NATO summit. “We request it for protection of nan world, not conscionable nan United States.”

Earlier successful his term, he would not norm retired taking nan land by subject unit to unafraid its “right, title and ownership,” though nan president has since said he’s taken subject options disconnected nan table.

Trump says nan U.S. needs Greenland to deter threats from Russia and China, and has many times made mendacious claims of Chinese and Russian subject forces lurking disconnected nan island’s coastline.

Greenland’s location is key

Greenland sits disconnected nan northeastern seashore of Canada, pinch much than two-thirds of its territory lying wrong nan Arctic Circle. That has made it important to nan defense of North America since World War II, erstwhile nan U.S. occupied Greenland to guarantee it didn’t autumn into nan hands of Nazi Germany and to protect important North Atlantic shipping lanes.

Following nan Cold War, nan Arctic was mostly an area of world cooperation. But ambiance alteration is thinning nan Arctic ice, promising to create a northwest transition for world waste and acquisition and reigniting title pinch Russia, China and different countries complete entree to nan region’s mineral resources.

Security threats punctual European worries

In 2018, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” successful an effort to summation much power successful nan region. China has besides announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” arsenic portion of its world Belt and Road Initiative, which has created economical links pinch countries astir nan world.

Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move, saying: “Do we want nan Arctic Ocean to toggle shape into a caller South China Sea, fraught pinch militarization and competing territorial claims?”

Meanwhile, Russia has sought to asseverate its power complete wide areas of nan Arctic successful title pinch nan U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway. Moscow has besides sought to boost its subject beingness successful nan polar region, location to its Northern Fleet and a tract wherever nan Soviet Union tested atomic weapons. Russian subject officials person said that nan tract is fresh for resuming nan tests, if necessary.

Russia’s subject has been restoring aged Soviet infrastructure successful nan Arctic and building caller facilities. Since 2014, nan Russian subject has opened respective subject bases successful nan Arctic and worked connected reconstructing airfields.

European leaders’ concerns person been heightened since Russia launched a warfare successful Ukraine connected Feb. 24, 2022.

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow is worried astir NATO’s activities successful nan Arctic and will respond by strengthening nan capacity of its equipped forces there. But he said that Moscow was holding nan doorway unfastened to broader world practice successful nan region.

U.S. subject beingness successful Greenland already supports rocket operations

The U.S. Department of Defense operates nan distant Pituffik Space Base successful northwestern Greenland, which was built aft nan U.S. and Denmark signed nan Defense of Greenland Treaty successful 1951. It supports rocket warning, rocket defense and abstraction surveillance operations for nan U.S. and NATO.

Greenland besides guards portion of what is known arsenic nan GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, wherever NATO monitors Russian naval movements successful nan North Atlantic.

Thomas Crosbie, an subordinate professor of subject operations astatine nan Royal Danish Defense College, said that an American takeover wouldn’t amended upon Washington’s existent information strategy.

“The United States will summation nary advantage if its emblem is flying successful Nuuk (Greenland’s capital) versus nan Greenlandic flag,” he told The Associated Press. “There’s nary benefits to them because they already bask each of nan advantages they want.

“If there’s immoderate circumstantial information entree that they want to amended American security, they’ll beryllium fixed it arsenic a matter of course, arsenic a trusted ally. So this has thing to do pinch improving nationalist information for nan United States.”

Denmark’s parliament approved a measure past twelvemonth to let U.S. subject bases connected Danish soil. It widened a erstwhile subject agreement, made successful 2023 pinch nan Biden administration, wherever U.S. troops had wide entree to Danish aerial bases successful nan Scandinavian country.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, successful a consequence to lawmakers’ questions, wrote past summertime that Denmark would beryllium capable to terminate nan statement if nan U.S. tries to annex each aliases portion of Greenland.

Mineral wealthiness attracts Western powers

Greenland is besides a rich | root of nan alleged uncommon world minerals that are a cardinal constituent of cellphones, computers, batteries and different high-tech gadgets that are expected to powerfulness nan world’s system successful nan coming decades.

That has attracted nan liking of nan U.S. and different Western powers arsenic they effort to easiness China’s power of nan marketplace for these captious minerals.

Development of Greenland’s mineral resources is challenging because of nan island’s harsh climate, while strict biology controls person proved an further hurdle for imaginable investors.

Kirka, Dazio and Cook constitute for nan Associated Press. Dasha Litvinova contributed to this study from Tallinn, Estonia.