Why Trump has his eye on Greenland...Message to China and Russia
Jan 08, 2025
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He wrote on social media X(X, formerly Twitter) that "I came to Greenland…"It's very, very cold."
President-elect Trump even said the day before that he would not rule out using military force to annex Greenland, sparking controversy.
Why is he greedy for ice-covered Greenland? Is it just a matter of resources?
According to the Wilson Center, a Washington foreign policy think tank, the United States is currently engaged in a three-way war with China and Russia over natural resources in the Arctic region such as lithium, cobalt and graphite.
In the meantime, the New York Post, a U.S. media outlet, cited the remarks of sources involved in the Trump administration's transition to explain the specific reason for the Greenland merger.
An official said "It's sending a strong and cautious message to China. Showing behavior, not words."The president-elect is laying out the initial framework for the `Trump Doctrine.'", he explained.
Another think tank, the Atlantic Council, cited two main reasons (to merge Greenland).
Atlantic Council researcher Alex Plichas explained that "the first is that there are large deposits of rare earth elements needed to manufacture important defense and electronics, and the second is to ensure that the United States has a stronger position as competition for navigation and resources to the Arctic heats up."
The U.S. has been quietly competing with China and Russia for years over the Arctic and has deployed military icebreakers to the region to explore the resource-rich frozen tundra.
In recent years, climate change has intensified competition over the Arctic.
This is due to melting ice caps and ice, which previously had almost no access to Arctic resources.
However, there were evaluations in the United States that Arctic resource exploration and research were inferior to other countries.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida), Trump's national security adviser, said in 2017 "In the Arctic, where we will compete for natural resources, the Coast Guard needs more than one icebreaker. There are dozens of ships in Russia." The Coast Guard currently has just two of its critical ships, with Walz recently referring to plans to deploy more than 10 icebreakers.
The United States' eye on Greenland is not a recent problem.
The United States took interest in Greenland when it purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867.
At the end of World War II, the United States offered a purchase price of $100 million at the time, but Denmark refused.
In 2019, then-President Trump publicly hinted at a possible Greenland purchase but was flatly rejected by Greenland and Danish leaders.
On the 7th, the Danish government clarified its refusal to U.S. President-elect Trump's claim to purchase Greenland, an autonomous territory, saying, `It is not for sale.' He also expressed displeasure with Trump Jr.'s visit to Greenland on the same day.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen appeared on a local TV2 broadcast on the same day, saying, `From the Danish government's point of view, I will make it very clear that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders""As Greenland's prime minister has already said, it is not for sale. "
He added that only Greenland can determine and define Greenland's future.
Meanwhile, Greenland, with a population of about 56,000, was under Danish rule for about 300 years before being incorporated into Denmark's home country after breaking away from colonial relations in 1953. It was first obtained by the Danish parliament in 1979, followed by a referendum in November 2008 and the autonomy of all policy decisions except diplomacy and defense through the Autonomous Government Act enacted in 2009.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
