The private aircraft carrying US businessman Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on January 7, 2025. Trump Jr made a visit to Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory coveted by Trump Sr and which hopes to one day be independent but remains dependent on Copenhagen for now. (Photo by Emil Stach / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
In his first term as president, current American president-elect Donald Trump was heard hinting that he would welcome Greenland as an American territory under the custodianship of the United States.
At the time, no one seemed to take him seriously, and those who did thought it was highly unlikely to succeed given the myriad other concerns and roadblocks then President Trump would have to navigate.
Now that he has again been elected to the highest office in the land — and is set to become arguably the most powerful person on the planet once again — he has repeated his desires, this time rather more vocally.
But why is he so determined to get Greenland, an Island with a population of roughly 57,000 people who could fit into Johannesburg’s FNB stadium with room to spare?
For starters, the Thule Air Force base. It has been in operation since 1941, when it was known as US Air Force Base Greenland and served as a staging area for operations in Europe by US aircraft following the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany.
Since that time it has expanded to serve additional security and scientific purposes, including providing research into vehicle types and designs that can be used by NASA, SpaceX and others.
Thule Air Force base serves as one of numerous sites that assists NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) with its NWS (North Warning System).
While not officially part of NWS, the base provides radar stations and other support to NWS in achieving its objectives of monitoring threats including aircraft, missiles or space objects that may pose a threat to North America.
It also monitors maritime threats to North America and provides aerospace control of the Arctic and parts of Northern Europe by tracking and, if necessary, intercepting aircraft hostile to North America.
The necessity to ensure security over this region has, and will, only become more vital for American interests as climate change increases the arctic melt, opening up previously frozen shipping lanes in the region.
Monitoring of straits
It also provides a position from which to monitor and control the Bering Strait, which links the Arctic and Pacific oceans between Russia and North America, the Fram Strait, which links the Arctic and Atlantic oceans between Greenland and Svalbard (a Norwegian Archipelago in the Arctic ocean north of Europe) and the Davis Strait, which is a vital route between Greenland and Canada’s Archipelago which gives access to North America from the Arctic ocean.
Control of these shipping routes will become more important as the Arctic ice continues to melt, making them more accessible. It is therefore in NATO’s strategic interests to ensure that neither Russia or China is able to assert control over the Island. But the benefits don’t stop there.
The opening of the shipping lanes as the ice melts will also have significant benefits economically for whomever controls the region.
As arctic ice melts and opens up the waterways the North West Passage, which is often too frozen to navigate and requires ice breakers to access, will provide an alternative route between Asia and Europe to those already in use, including the North Sea Route, which is controlled by the Russians (who impose fees and regulations on the route) and the Suez Canal.
The North West Passage is roughly 40% shorter than the Suez Canal route between Asia and Europe. Global tensions between the USA and Russia and China could see the need for a shorter alternative route also becoming of vital strategic importance for USA interests.
All of the above, while strategically important, are not the only benefits the USA would gain from control of Greenland.
Mineral deposits
The world’s largest island is extraordinarily wealthy in mineral deposits that have thus far been difficult to access because of the extreme weather conditions on the Arctic island and environmental concerns that exploration and excavation could have on the region.
The fears include the potential for water contamination with hazardous materials and the effect on the indigenous Inuit people inhabiting the Island, who rely heavily on traditional methods of hunting and fishing.
Mining operation could have detrimental effects on their food security and cultural practices, and there would be the potential for a loss of biodiversity due to the possible loss of species found nowhere else in the world.
Should the United States not only gain control of Greenland, but also authorise mining operations in the region, they would gain access to numerous valuable minerals including molybdenum, which is used in the production of steel and alloys and plays a key role in the production of electronics and chemicals.
In the medical industry it is used in X-rays and other imaging technologies, the production of corrosive resistant coatings and it is used in military and aerospace production due to the capability of molybdenum alloy to withstand extreme conditions such as high stress and heat.
It also happens to be used to create armour piercing ammunition.
Other minerals include niobium, zinc, lead and thorium.
There are also believed to be deposits of graphite, copper, gold, platinum group metals, and diamonds.
A 2023 survey indicated that Greenland contains 25 of the 34 critical minerals identified by the European Commission. Most importantly, Greenland is believed to have one of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals (REEs), including uranium, in the world.
REE’s are used in industries from magnets to lightbulbs, TV and computer screens, ceramics, glass, lithium ion batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, smartphones, electric motors and even hydrogen storage, to name a few.
But most importantly it is used in guided missile technology and some REEs significantly improve the performance of radar and communication systems.
China and rare earth minerals
The problem for the USA is that China currently accounts for between 60 to 70% of REE mining production and 80 to 90% of REE refining globally. This could be seen to pose a significant threat to USA interests, and the desire for REE independence could be a driving factor behind Trump’s desire for USA control of Greenland.
While it can be said that with Greenland as a territory of Denmark the island is still effectively under the control of NATO and its allies, environmental concerns may be more of a hindrance under Danish authority than under a USA with Trump as president.
Finally, it is important to note that Danish authority of Greenland is contradictory to the Monroe Doctrine which prohibits any new colonisation in the western hemisphere by European powers (“new” meaning after President James Monroe’s speech to Congress in 1823, the USA only officially recognised Denmark’s autonomy over Greenland in 1917) and that any attempt to intervene in the Americas by a European power would be viewed as a hostile act by the USA.
Monroe’s intention was to create a separate sphere of influence apart from the problems facing Europe and is one of the reasons for the USA’s history of isolationism. While the Monroe doctrine is not the official foreign policy of the USA, it has been a driving factor in USA relations with the rest of the world.
With all the above in mind it is not difficult to understand why Trump would view annexation of Greenland to be of vital strategic importance for the USA, even if it means alienating some of his European allies.
It would also be of great strategic importance to Russia or China if they were to gain control of the island and that would pose an unacceptable threat to USA interests.
This is why Trump believes protection of Greenland is important, why he believes the USA is the only power capable of doing so and why he has made his desires, if not his intentions, known to the world.
