The President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that he wants to take over Greenland, prompting Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksento urge him to “stop threats” to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
On Sunday night, after Frederiksen’s statement, Trump insisted.
“We need Greenland from a national security point of view,” he told reporters at the Air Force Oneapparently emboldened after the US attack on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduroits authoritarian leader, and his wife.
Trump’s comments were the latest in his long campaign to take control of Greenland.
In December, he appointed the first special correspondent of the United States to the island, which angered the leaders of Denmark and Greenland.
On Sunday, a day after the end of the US military incursion in Venezuela, Trump again reiterated his focus on obtaining Greenland, but Frederiksen and Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsenthey rejected it firmly.
Frederiksen stated that he would “strongly urge the United States to stop the threats.”
Trump says the island is vital to US national security and argues that Denmark you are not spending enough to protect it properly.
Greenland is important for its geostrategic location.
Most of Greenland lies within the Arctic Circle, where superpowers compete for military and commercial dominance.
Controlling the island would give the United States an outpost in a crucial naval corridor connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic, where climate change is melting ice and turning a territory previously unnavigable in a competitive setting.
Greenland also has enormous rare earth mineral reserves.
Some scientists say parts of Greenland’s continental shelf could hold some of the largest undiscovered oil and gas deposits in the Arctic.
However, the Greenland government formally abandoned its oil ambitions in 2021, citing environmental risks and lack of commercial viability.
Greenland has also taken legal steps to limit the potential for environmentally destructive mining practices, including banning uranium mining in 2021.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory from Denmark, which colonized it more than 300 years ago.
Greenland gained autonomy in 1979, giving the population control over most of its internal affairs.
Since 2009, Greenlanders have had the right to hold a referendum on independence.
Denmark controls foreign policy, defense and other aspects of Greenland’s governance.
And the island remains largely economically dependent on Denmark:
Greenland receives a huge annual subsidy that funds schools, cheap gasoline and quality social services.
Last year, in a speech to Congress, Trump said:
“I think we’re going to make it, one way or another.”
Military intervention would disrupt the central agreement underpinning NATO, of which Denmark and the United States are founding members.
However, Trump has refused to rule it out.
Trump has also attempted to use his economic clout to sway public opinion.
In a social media post last year, he addressed Greenlanders directly:
The Greenlanders are happy to do business with the United States, but they are not interested in being absorbed:
Denmark is a military minnow.
The United States has the most powerful military in the world, with more than 1.3 million military on active duty.
Denmark is struggling to increase its defense capabilities and add more personnel to its army, which has between 7,000 and 9,000 professional soldiers, not counting soldiers in basic training.
Its security has largely depended on its membership in NATO, which has tied Denmark — like much of Europe — to the United States for decades.
“No one in Denmark is under any illusion that we should try to defend Greenland against the United States,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, a think tank.