President Donald Trump is serious about his acquisition of Greenland. However, his administration was not the first to overture on this strategic island, with national security implications and abundant precious natural resources.
The Greenland reappeared Thursday during a news briefing in the oval office with NATO executive director Mark Latte.
“I think that's what happens,” Trump responded to a reporter's question about his desire to gain territory. He added:
We've been dealing with Denmark. I've been dealing with Greenland and I have to do that. It's really necessary for national security. I think that's why NATO has to get involved. …We really need Greenland for national security. …We already have a few bases in Greenland, and we have quite a few soldiers. Maybe you'll see more and more soldiers going there. I don't know.
Greenland is the territory of NATO members, Denmark's pseudo-sorberin. The US has one military base on the island, Pituffik Space Base, and formerly the Thule Air Base. It was more, but they have been closed ever since.
Latte was uneasy about commenting on this sensitive issue on his part. He said he didn't want to drag NATO into issues.
As for the Greenlanders, it would be convincing to warm them up to the idea of ​​becoming a part of the United States at the beginning of March, with the Democrats on the centre right beating the left coalition. The Victory Party supports Greenland's independence, but gradually develops more politically and economically only after the ice territory with a total population of less than 60,000. Party leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Greenland is not for sale. Nielsen wrote on Facebook, sparking Trump's interest in gaining “threat to political independence.”
Trump's statement from the US is inappropriate and once again shows us that we need to stand together in such circumstances.
Whatever the route the Trump administration strives to acquire Greenland, it must eliminate force and rely on economic incentives and diplomatic means.
Our history tries to win Greenland
The United States has been turning its eyes to Greenland for over a century.
In 1941, the United States signed an agreement with Denmark, giving us responsibility for defending Greenland during World War II. This gave the US military permission to build facilities to land planes. The pentagon considered Greenland the largest aircraft carrier in the world. The army used it to run through the island into Germany as a fuel stoppage stop for the bombing. The top officials of the Harry Truman administration were proven to have been proven to provide Denmark $100 million during the war, but to no avail.
This was not the first time the US had tried to acquire the island. William Seward, Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln, who led the Alaska purchase, also tried to buy Greenland in 1910 by Howard Tuft's US ambassador, like Danish Maurice Egan's US ambassador. The proposal was: Denmark would hand over Greenland to the US and in exchange would give Denmark a group of Philippine islands. But nothing happened.
In 1951, the United States signed a new treaty with Denmark, providing a wider military latitude to use Greenland as the foundation for its Arctic operations. The US military built a massive Tulle Air Force Base on the northwest coast of the island. Its construction has been compared to the construction of the Panama Canal due to its complexity.
Impact on national security
Greenland's strategic national security values ​​were recognized long before the United States built China into the threat it is today. “Hap,” General Arnold once said, “If there was World War III, that strategic center will be the Arctic.”
As another story of tensions between World War I and China intensifies in today's multipolar world order, Greenland's national security values ​​will be refocused.
Matthew Shoemaker, a former intelligence agency for the Navy and Defense Intelligence Telecommunications Agency, who served at Russian desks as part of the European Command and the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center, filed a US lawsuit in Greenland, USA in December with OP-ED for the Hill.
He said the US must advocate for greater control of Greenland to protect its national security interests. Trump's goals are based on the legal framework established by the defense of the 1951 Greenland Agreement. “This agreement allows the United States to have significant impact and potential control over this strategically important area, allowing Congress and diplomats to file persuasive lawsuits of actions that cannot be ignored,” writes Shoemaker. The 1951 agreement granted the United States important rights and responsibilities within Greenland. “The contract provisions grant important authority to increase American control when national security is invoked,” Shoemaker added. The agreement gives the United States within Greenland extensive access, including the use of air, land and sea spaces near defence areas.
Shoemaker wrote that Greenland's strategic value has only increased:
The Warming Arctic has opened new transport routes, exposed vast mineral resources, and attracted the attention of global forces like China and Russia. In this regard, the provisions of the 1951 agreement take on new importance.
Alexander Gray, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former Chiefs of Staff of the National Security Council under Trump, has the shoemaker's sentiment under seconds. He wrote the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, entitled “Why Should Trump Buy Greenland?” Among his points:
If (Greenland) separates from Denmark, it is responsible for its own security, that is, tasks that are not in place to handle. This is a serious concern given the second important development. Russia and China are threatening the current situation in the Arctic Circle. Moscow claims important masses of the Arctic Ocean, including Greenland's exclusive economic zone. China has declared its transport network, known as the “Polar Silk Road,” as a “close distance country” to connect Arctic communities closer to the Arctic economic and political agenda. Trump has the opportunity to negotiate deals of the century.
Rare earth minerals are abundant
If there was at least one agreement between Joe Biden and the Trump administration, it was that extracting rare earth minerals was a national security issue.
Greenland has rare earth gold mines. It is filled with a long list of mineral resources such as oil, natural gas, and rare earth metals, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, diamond, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, and uranium.
The world's superpowers believe access to rare earth minerals is essential. These resources are important for high-tech products such as mobile phones, computer hard drives, parts for electric and hybrid vehicles, flat screen televisions and monitors. They are also used for drugs and energy storage. But even more importantly, these minerals are important to national defense as well. They are used to create electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, radar and sonar systems.
Most rare earths used in today's products come from China, and recent reports say China handles 90% of the world. In 2019, the US imported 78% of rare earth minerals from China.
The US is about to leave China's rare earths, accounting for 12.3% of global production in 2023. The reopening of the Mountain Pass mines in California was a major step towards reducing dependence on China. And of course there is Trump's attempt to gain access to Ukraine's rare earth. The abundance of these resources in Greenland makes Artic Island even more valuable.
