Why does Trump want Greenland? Arctic security, precious minerals at risk – National
US President Donald Trump has been saying for months that he wants to take control of Greenland.
That rhetoric has returned after last weekend’s US military operation in Venezuela, which underscored Trump’s overall vision of American dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
Trump and the White House have made it clear that this approach also extends to Greenland, which is a sovereign territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the US and Canada.
“The president has been very open and clear with all of you and the rest of the world that it is in the best interest of the United States to stop Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
Leavitt would not rule out a US military attack to find Greenland, saying the administration was considering “all options” but “Trump’s first choice has always been negotiations.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that he will meet with Danish officials next week, and that it is “always the intention” of Trump to buy Greenland, rather than acquire it by force.
“This is not new,” he said. “He talked about it in his first term, and he is not the first American president who has explored or looked at how we can find Greenland.”
Greenland and Denmark, as well as Canada and European partners, reaffirmed this week that the future of Greenland must be decided by its people alone.
Here’s why Trump would like to get Greenland, and why it’s an important security asset regardless of who’s in charge.
Location and military power
Greenland sits off the northeast coast of Canada and is one of the largest landmasses in the world.
About 80 percent of the island is within the Arctic Circle, with extensive ice and protected areas.
Most of the 56,000 people, 90 percent of whom are Inuit, live on the southwest coast of the area, including the capital city of Nuuk.
The Norse first arrived in Greenland around 982 AD and lived there for centuries before disappearing for unclear reasons around 1500, according to the Visit Greenland travel page.
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The colonial period is considered to begin in 1721 when the Dano-Norwegian crown re-established contact and “in 1916, Denmark’s rights to Greenland were confirmed by the United States, as part of the agreement that facilitated the American purchase of the Danish West Indies,” according to the Danish Institute for International Studies.
The US military began stationing Greenland during the Second World War to ensure that it did not fall into the hands of Nazi Germany, and to protect the North Atlantic shipping lanes.
Today, the island is home to several military and research bases. While most of them are Danish owned and operated, the US military uses the Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland.
That base was built under the Greenland Defense Treaty signed by the US and Denmark in 1951, which supports missile warning, missile defense and surveillance activities of the US and NATO.
The US also gained expanded access to Denmark’s military and air bases under a military agreement signed in 2023. Danish lawmakers approved a bill last June to allow US military bases on Danish soil, extending that agreement.
“There are no gains to be made” in US national security by taking Greenland, said Andrea Charron, director of the Center for Defense and Security at the University of Manitoba.
“In fact, there is a lot of potential damage” to NATO and the western alliance, he added, warning that the “explosion” could be permanent.
Denmark is already moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic as part of an overall defense boost. The country is one of the top spenders in NATO with 3.22 percent of its GDP dedicated to defense this year – on par with the US.
The US has already started to take steps towards Greenland, however. In June, the Pentagon announced that Trump had ordered that Greenland be transferred from the area of responsibility of the US European Command to the US Northern Command.
That was done without consulting European partners, Charron noted.
The increased focus on Greenland’s security comes as new access points to the Arctic open up due to shrinking ice caused by climate change.
While Canada, the US, Russia, Denmark and other Arctic states have claims for exclusive economic zones within their parts of the Arctic, the northernmost part of the world remains unclaimed by any power, especially the North Pole.
In 2018, China declared itself the “near-Arctic region” in an attempt to gain greater influence in the region, and has announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” for economic links with countries around the world.
Russia, on the other hand, has been restoring and expanding its Arctic military bases and airfields since 2014, as it seeks to exert its influence in the region.
Chinese and Russian military incursions into Arctic waters, including off Canada’s northern coast, have increased in recent years. NATO members have sought to increase their presence in the Arctic accordingly, prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia already has more than 50 percent of the Arctic in terms of population and land,” Charron said. “Russia and China both have missiles that can hit targets in North America. So Denmark and Greenland are very important for base awareness and missile defense.”
Canada has prioritized Arctic security and sovereignty both as it rebuilds its military capabilities and its foreign policy.
Foreign Minister Anita Anand will open a new Canadian embassy in Nuuk early this year as part of that strategy.
Greenland is also home to important mineral deposits that attract the world’s energy rush for semiconductors, batteries and magnets.
In particular, Greenland is a rich source of so-called rare earth minerals – an important component of smartphones, computers and other high-tech gadgets – with reserves of 1.5 million metric tons, according to the US Geological Survey.
That’s more than Canada’s total savings but well below global leader China.
China also dominates rare earth mining and production, while Greenland has no such influence in the region.
The ban on uranium mining in 2021 by the government of Greenland on environmental protection issues effectively prevented the mining of rare earth minerals, uranium is a byproduct.
Trump has made it clear that he is willing to overturn similar laws in the US, where he has expanded mining and oil production in protected countries.
Emma Ashford, director of the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, said Trump’s focus on Venezuela’s oil reserves following the impeachment of US President Nicolas Maduro offers clues to his foreign policy strategy.
“Trump appears, in many ways, to align the interests of American national security with American energy companies,” he said.
Ashford said Trump could use Venezuela’s successful military campaign to try to force Denmark to relinquish at least some control over Greenland — and could increase pressure on Canada.
“I think we will continue to see this pattern where the military is used as a symbol of trying to burn places like Canada or Denmark,” he said.
— via files from Global Reggie Cecchini and The Associated Press
