Riches, Routes Draw Trump to Greenland

 

"President-elect Donald Trump has set his sights on a vast, ice-covered and sparsely populated island with a strategic location on the edge of the Arctic -- and a whole lot of mineral riches.

At more than three times the size of Texas, Greenland's ample deposits in rare earths, oil and gas, as well as its commanding position astride crucial trade and military arteries, have made it a focal point for major rival powers including the U.S., China and Russia.

Greenland's rising profile reflects the larger global scramble for the Arctic as climate change opens maritime routes and reorders geopolitics at the top of the world. Russia reopened dozens of Soviet military bases in the Arctic as tensions with the West worsened over the events in Ukraine. China has pursued expanding shipping routes through the region's melting ice and exploiting Greenland's natural resources, including minerals used in everything from phones to electric cars and military equipment.

"We need it for national security," Trump said Tuesday, declining to rule out using military force to seize control of Greenland, as well as of the Panama Canal.

The Republican's latest comments sparked outrage among some officials and lawmakers in Europe, in particular Denmark, Greenland's former colonial ruler that still governs foreign and security policy on the island and is a close U.S. ally.

On Wednesday, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the idea about Greenland wasn't a good one. "But maybe more importantly, it's obviously one that's not going to happen. So we probably shouldn't waste a lot of time talking about it," Blinken said during a visit to Paris.

Control over Greenland and the broader Arctic is valuable for projecting power, monitoring activities of rivals and securing shipping routes, analysts and officials said.

Trump's national-security team has held preliminary talks about how to begin negotiations with Greenland and Denmark once he takes office on Jan. 20, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The U.S. already has a presence on the island with the Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. It includes a radar station that is part of the U.S.'s ballistic missile early-warning system.

Greenland is also part of what is known as the GIUK gap, a crucial naval chokepoint among Greenland, Iceland and the U.K. that was closely watched during the Cold War. In recent years, Russia has increased its submarine patrols and exercises in the area.

Greenlanders and Danes have said the island isn't for sale. A self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland, with a population of around 56,000, decides on most domestic matters.

"Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland," Mute Egede, the island's prime minister, wrote in a social-media post Tuesday. "Our future and fight for independence is our business."

But world powers have been circling for some time.

Beijing has boosted its economic presence in the area, including investment in mining operations in Greenland. The Pentagon worked successfully in 2018 to block China from financing three airports on the island.

China is particularly interested because of Greenland's position relative to all Arctic shipping routes.

With Trump's threats to supercharge tariffs on China, Greenland's vast deposits of rare-earth elements are also becoming increasingly important. The island holds 1.5 million tons of reserves of these materials, according to estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey, not far off the 1.8 million tons in the U.S. China, though, dominates global rare-earth reserves with 44 million tons of deposits and analysts said that it could wield its access to those as a weapon in a trade war.

"When you consider how close the largest untapped deposits of graphite and rare earths are to the eastern U.S., it's obvious Greenland could be a raw-materials resource" for the U.S., said Stefan Bernstein, chief executive of GreenRoc Strategic Materials, which has operations in the territory.

Greenland's resources have been talked about for years, but the opportunities in its nascent mining industry haven't materialized because it has been difficult to convince investors to risk capital to get projects off the ground, Bernstein said.

Still, KoBold Metals, which is backed by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, in recent years undertook early-stage exploration in the territory for critical minerals.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark told Danish television that although Greenland wasn't up for grabs, she welcomed an increased U.S. role in the region given moves by other powers such as Russia. Other Danish officials were less diplomatic.

"This level of disrespect from the coming U.S. president towards very, very loyal allies and friends is record setting," Rasmus Jarlov, a member of the Danish Parliament, wrote on X.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark said on Wednesday that with Russia arming itself in the Arctic, and China taking increased interest in the area, it was legitimate for the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to have security concerns. "In conjunction with the fact that we are seeing a melting in the Arctic, so that new shipping routes are opening up, we are, unfortunately, also seeing increasing great-power rivalry," Rasmussen said.

Others in the European Union have come to Greenland's defense.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said he had discussed the issue with European colleagues and "a certain lack of understanding became clear with regard to current statements from the U.S." He said "the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country."

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot of France said the autonomous Danish territory is part of the EU. "It is out of the question that the European Union would let other countries, whoever they are, attack its sovereign borders," he said on French radio on Wednesday.

It isn't clear how taking control of Greenland would be achieved. Some of Trump's advisers acknowledge a sale is unlikely, but an expansion of U.S. presence on the island is a possibility, the Journal has reported." [1]

1. Riches, Routes Draw Trump to Greenland. Kantchev, Georgi.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Jan 2025: A1.