The repercussions of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland, an autonomous island of Denmark, without excluding the possibility of using military force, continue to unfold.
A report in the New York Post (NYP) emphasizes that Trump’s move raises the question, “Why?” and includes insights from a source close to Trump’s transition team.
Claiming that Greenland is becoming increasingly important for strategists in many countries, especially Washington, due to its location on vital shipping routes and the presence of key raw materials rarely found elsewhere, the NYP reported that the source said, “To send a strong and deliberate message to Beijing. Not just talk. It’s action. Make America ambitious again,” the source was quoted as saying.
The source also noted that the president-elect drew the first framework of the “Trump Doctrine.”
According to the Wilson Center, a foreign policy think tank, the U.S. is locked in a “three-cornered” struggle with Russia and China for the Arctic’s natural resources, such as lithium, cobalt, and graphite.
Alex Plitsas of the Atlantic Council said, “There are two main reasons [for annexing Greenland]. First, the large deposits of rare earth elements, which are essential for critical defense and electronics production. Second, Greenland has a legitimately large claim to the Arctic, which will give the United States a stronger position as competition for navigation and resources there heats up.”
U.S.-China-Russia rivalry in the Arctic
For years, the U.S. has been in a “quiet tug-of-war” with China and Russia over access to the Arctic and has been sending military icebreakers to explore the resource-rich island, the NYP reports.
The Arctic is thought to be abundant in rare earth minerals, which are used in everything from mobile phones to weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and Western countries are mostly dependent on China for these minerals.
According to Plitsas, this dependence on Beijing “is not sustainable given geopolitical realities.” He argues, “There are other large deposits in places like Afghanistan, which are also unsustainable for various reasons.”
“With increasing demand for electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and advanced electronics, the United States relies heavily on critical materials to spur innovation and maintain global economic competitiveness,” the Wilson Center wrote in its 2023 report.
Competition over the Arctic, on the other hand, has intensified in recent years due to climate change, which has led to the melting of glaciers that previously made it almost impossible to access resources. “Warming has led to greater freedom of navigation in the Arctic,” Plitsas recalls.
U.S. ‘icebreaker ship’ discomfort
But according to the NYP, the Americans have so far lagged behind their rivals, partly due to limited U.S. access to the region and a relatively small number of icebreakers.
This problem has long troubled some Republicans, including Mike Waltz, whom Trump appointed as national security adviser. In a 2017 post on X, Waltz wrote, “In the Arctic, where we will compete for natural resources, the Coast Guard needs more than one icebreaker! Russia has dozens!”
The Coast Guard currently has only two of the vital vessels, but Waltz recently promised to ask for more in the 119th Congress in response to a post on X calling for “a dozen more” icebreakers.
Additional icebreakers and the acquisition of Greenland are topics Trump has chosen to highlight as the U.S. builds more rare earth mineral processing plants as part of an effort to reduce its dependence on China.
The United States is home to only 1.3 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, compared to 70 percent for China.
Greenland open to non-annexation options
Kuno Fencker, a member of Greenland’s parliament, told CNN on Tuesday that the island only gained full autonomy in 2009 and that since then, the regional government has been working to achieve sovereignty.
“We may have a lot of disagreements here about property, because we are trying to create a sovereign country as Greenland and we want to establish the state of Greenland,” Fencker said, adding that the regional government may be willing to work on a free association agreement with the United States.
The U.S. already has such agreements with Pacific island states such as Palau. Such agreements require Washington to provide financial assistance to the countries entering into the free relationship, as well as grant island citizens the right to work and live in the U.S. as “permanent residents.”
“The main [point] here is that Greenland [status] should be a monumental decision, what kind of state we want to be, and also who we should cooperate with, and our closest allies, which, you know, we are under the rule of Denmark,” Fencker said.
The new White House is open to other options
The source told NYP that Trump may be willing to discuss alternative arrangements with Greenland authorities other than full annexation.
“There is flexibility in discussing the best ways to strengthen America’s security, so I think it’s fair to say there is more than one option,” the source said.
The U.S. has long wanted to own Greenland. When it bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, it also considered bidding for the island in the North Atlantic.
Almost eighty years later, after the Second World War, the U.S. offered Greenland $100 million in gold bullion, which Denmark rejected.
But the offer led to a defense deal that gave the U.S. access to Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Spaceport, the northernmost outpost of the military, which was critical during the Cold War because of its proximity to Russia.
