Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
As Donald Trump Jr. made a surprise visit to Greenland this week, President-elect Donald Trump’s rhetoric is becoming more serious about purchasing the Arctic territory of Denmark.
The president-elect did not rule out using military coercion to gain control of Greenland at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. “No, I can’t tell you either of those things,” Trump said, when asked if he would rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of Greenland. “We need it for national security. That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s leaders remain adamant that Arctic territory is not for sale. “We have a clear interest in the United States playing an important role and not Russia or other countries. But Greenland is for the Greenlandic people,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Tuesday.
DANISH PRIME MINISTER HAS DUCT MESSAGE FOR TRUMP: GREENLAND IS NOT FOR SALE
Houses are seen on the coast of Nuuk, Greenland. (Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Greenlanders will vote later this year whether they want to remain part of Denmark or not. The strategic island sits at a territorial crossroads, as the United States, China and Russia compete for control of the melting Arctic region.
Denmark and therefore Greenland are NATO allies. Article 5 of the NATO Charter states that any military attack against a NATO ally requires a military response from the rest of the alliance.
“I don’t think it’s useful to talk about the implications of Article Five because the United States is not actually going to use force against a NATO ally. There are many reasons why that would never happen.” Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, told Fox News.
“It’s not that he doesn’t take what the president says seriously, because the fact that he’s making these threats changes the extent to which American allies feel they can count on the United States in the future… it undermines the influence that the United States has in terms of the international rule of law, brings us closer to the law of the jungle,” Bremmer continued.
Chief of Space Operations U.S. Space Force General Chance Saltzman and distinguished guests stand in front of a radar dome belonging to the 23rd Space Operations Squadron Detachment 1 at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland , on April 5, 2023. (US Space Force)
Trump began talking about buying Greenland in 2019 because it has about a quarter of the world’s rare earth minerals, needed for all electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, the defense industry and the new clean energy economy.
Sherri Goodman, who was the Pentagon’s first Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security in the 1990s, recently wrote a book on the strategic and national security consequences of climate change titled “Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for global security”. “
Goodman has seen firsthand how important Greenland is to the us army.
TRUMP INCREASES PLANS TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND AFTER RESIDENT STATES: ‘DENMARK IS USING US’
Donald Trump Jr., right, poses for a photo as he arrives in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
“We have long had a military base in northern Greenland to track incoming former Soviet and now Russian missiles or satellites. And due to climate change, navigation around Greenland and travel to Greenland is becoming more accessible.” Goodman said.
Then-President Harry Truman wanted to buy Greenland after World War II to exclude the Soviets from the Arctic. During the Cold War, the Arctic region was the most direct route for a strategic nuclear exchange between the United States and the USSR using long-range bombers and ballistic missiles. The GIUK gap, east of Greenland, is a huge access point for Russia’s operations in the Atlantic Ocean. Greenland became a key location for early warning networks and today is home to the northernmost US military installation, Pituffik Space Force Base, which houses a substantial portion of the network’s missile warning and space surveillance sensors. global.
The new Pituffik Space Base sign displayed on the Pituffik Space Base headquarters building, Greenland, April 6, 2023. Pituffik, formerly known as Thule Air Base, was renamed on April 6, 2023. (US Space Force)
China’s ambitions in the Arctic have increased in recent years. In 2018, China unveiled plans to build infrastructure and develop sea routes opened by climate change. State-owned companies have submitted bids to buy land in both Iceland and Greenland, so far without luck.
Temperatures are rising in the Arctic four times faster than in the rest of the world, making access to the rare earth minerals it contains more accessible.
“In this race for resources, the United States, NATO and their allies want to ensure that China and Russia Don’t agree to that. “China has a history of using surrogate science and research as a way to gain access to and learn about territories in the Arctic,” Goodman said.
Snow-capped mountains with a height of up to 1,000 meters can be seen near the Kings Bay research station in Ny-Alesund on Spitsbergen island, Norway, April 10, 2015. Arctic research stations in China, Norway, Germany and France. staffed year-round, they currently operate on the grounds of the former mining area of the Svalbard archipelago. (Jens Büttner/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh was asked about Greenland at a Defense Department briefing on Wednesday. “I’m certainly not going to go into hypotheticals. I think that’s up to the incoming administration to talk to,” Singh said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question about Greenland at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday. “The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one. But perhaps more importantly, it’s obviously not going to happen. So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it,” Blinken said.
