ASIATODAY.ID, WASHINGTON – US President-elect Donald Trump has said that it is essential for Washington from a national security standpoint to take ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly voiced his intention to buy Greenland, calling the possible purchase “a large real estate deal.” He argued that the Danish government would be eager to part with the world’s largest island as providing funding for it hurts them “really badly.”
However, the authorities in both Denmark and Greenland outright rejected the sale, to which the then-US president reacted by canceling his state visits to Copenhagen in 2019.
Trump, however, returned to the idea of the US acquiring the autonomous territory in a post on his TruthSocial platform on Sunday.
“For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the US feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he wrote.
In the same message, the US president-elect named PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for Washington’s ambassador to Denmark.
He described Howery as “a world-renowned entrepreneur, investor, and public servant,” who had performed “brilliantly” during his tenure as US envoy to Sweden between 2019 and 2021.
“Ken will do a wonderful job in representing the interests of the US,” Trump insisted.
Despite spanning an area of 2,166,086 sq km (about six times the size of Germany), Greenland is home to fewer than 57,000 people, as 80% of the island is covered with ice.
However, it is rich in gold, silver, copper and uranium and the ocean shelf below its territorial waters is believed to have vast oil reservoirs.
The island, which is part of the continent of North America, has access to the Arctic, where competition for dominance over natural resources and strategic routes between the world powers has been intensifying in recent years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned in September that Washington’s “desire for globalization and self-legitimization, to assert itself as a world policeman… is also extending to the Arctic region.”
Moscow has taken notice of how the US-led NATO bloc is “stepping up exercises related to possible crises in the Arctic,” he said.
“Our country is fully prepared to defend its interests in military, political and military-technical terms,” Lavrov insisted.
Greenland hits back at Trump threat
Greenland has rejected any idea of selling out to Washington after US President-elect Donald Trump said control over the Arctic island would be in his country’s strategic and national interest.
The autonomous territory of Denmark is sparsely inhabited and mostly covered by snow and ice. Trump has raised the issue of buying the island in his first term at the White House.
“Greenland is ours,” the island’s prime minister Mute Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Announcing the nomination of the new US ambassador to Denmark on Sunday, Trump said that “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the US, “for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world.”
Trump did not specifically mention an offer to buy Greenland and it was unclear whether his phrasing implied the willingness of his incoming government to seize the island by force from Denmark, a fellow NATO member.
In August 2019, one of Trump’s aides confirmed that the then-president wanted to “take a look at a potential Greenland purchase,” describing it as “a strategic place” with a lot of valuable minerals.
The island sits on top of several strategic trade routes in the Arctic Ocean, as well as significant deposits of uranium and precious metals. Control over the island would also allow the US to claim around 900,000 square kilometers of the adjacent continental shelf.
Though Greenland is over 2.1 million square kilometers in size, it has only around 55,000 residents, almost 90% of them Inuit. Greenland has been recognized as Danish territory since the 1814 Treaty of Kiel. It was administered as a colony until 1953 and has enjoyed home rule since 1979. Since 2009, the island has also had a parliament and a government managing internal affairs, law enforcement, and coast guard duties. Greenland has two deputies in the Danish parliament and relies on Copenhagen for its security, foreign and monetary policy, and more than half its budget.
The island formally left the EU’s economic precursor in 1985 due to a dispute over fishing rights, but remains tied to the bloc as part of Denmark. (RT)
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