President Donald Trump has said a lot of alarming things, but one comment that is sounding alarm bells across the Atlantic, from U.S. shores into Denmark, is his statement: “One way or another, we’re going to get [Greenland].”
Now the Trump administration is sending an uninvited delegation to the autonomous Danish territory on Thursday, a move that Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has criticized, calling it “highly aggressive” and a “provocation.”
Greenland’s people are bracing for the visit from second lady Usha Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and energy secretary Chris Wright. Usha is set to watch Greenland’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” while Waltz and Wright see the Pituffik Space Base, a U.S. military facility in remote northern Greenland.
Meanwhile, as the Trump administration closes in on Greenland, Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has previously stated emphatically: “We seriously mean—and this is also true in Greenland—that Greenland is not for sale.“ Denmark is responsible for the defense and security of the island’s 57,000 residents, and opinion polls show while Greenland’s people prefer a looser relationship with Denmark, they are against becoming a United States territory.
Nevertheless, Trump’s persistence raises an important question: Why is he so fixated on Greenland, anyway?
Greenland is attractive to Trump for two reasons: It has a wealth of natural resources, and is strategically located on the shortest route between the U.S. and Europe.
“The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground,” National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told the Associated Press.
According to the BBC, the U.S. has had its eye on the territory as far back as the 1860s, when President Andrew Johnson first wanted to buy Greenland. Much later, during World War II, the U.S. invaded Greenland and established military and radio stations across the territory. After the war, American forces remained in Greenland at what is now known as Pituffik Space Base.
“If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College told the BBC. “That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the U.S.”
The Trump delegation’s visit also comes as both China and Russia are increasing their activity in the Arctic.
The other reason Trump has his sights set on Greenland is for its large deposits of rare earth minerals needed to make computers, smartphones, batteries, as well as its potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.
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