U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified his statements regarding his repeated desire for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast autonomous Arctic territory governed by Denmark. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last Sunday: “We need Greenland… it is of extreme strategic importance right now.” He added: “Greenland is surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships everywhere; we need Greenland from a national security perspective, and Denmark will not be able to do that.”
The White House confirmed that it is “discussing a range of options” for the acquisition of Greenland and that the use of the U.S. military is not ruled out. For her part, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized on Monday that she has made the Kingdom of Denmark’s position very clear and that Greenland has repeatedly confirmed its refusal to join the United States.
Greenland, a resource-rich island covering 836,000 square miles (2.16 million square kilometers), was a former Danish colony and is now an autonomous territory of Denmark located in the Arctic. It is the least densely populated country in the world and is so remote that its 56,000 residents travel between its cities by boat, helicopter, and plane, mostly scattered along the island’s west coast.
Nuuk, the territory’s capital, is a typical example of these cities, with its brightly colored houses nestled between a rugged coast and inland mountains. Outside the cities, Greenland is mostly wilderness, with ice covering 81% of its land. Nearly 90% of its population is of Inuit descent, and the territory’s economy has long relied on fishing.
Greenland occupies a strategic geopolitical position, situated between the United States and Europe, and on what is known as the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap—a maritime passage connecting Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, linking the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.
Its vast wealth of natural resources, including oil, gas, and rare earth minerals, makes it of extreme strategic importance, especially as China exploits its dominance in the rare earth minerals industry to pressure the United States. These rare earth minerals are of increasing importance to the global economy, as they are used in manufacturing everything from electric vehicles and wind turbines to military equipment.
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