Amid rising U.S.-China tensions and Arctic militarization, President Donald Trump wants Greenland for its rare earth minerals and strategic defense.
President Donald Trump has insisted the U.S. needs to “get” Greenland, “one way or another.” But it’s not the first time U.S. leaders have had their eyes on the icy, sprawling island.
Located in the middle of contested waters between the U.S., Russia and Western Europe, Greenland is situated at a point that could protect the North Atlantic passage from Russian ships and submarines. It was a key military vantage point during the Cold War, and President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland from the Danes in 1946.
The island is also a transfer point for communication cables that cross the Atlantic. European officials claim Russian “ghost ships” have been destroying such cables by dropping their anchors and dragging them across the ocean floor.
Greater control over the island would not only offer the U.S. the shortest ship route to Europe but also the opportunity to bolster its ballistic missile early warning system and place radar on the ocean floor to track the movements of Russian and Chinese ships.
The island rests on top of lucrative supplies of critical and rare earth minerals, such as cobalt, nickel, uranium and iron — materials that are essential to electric vehicles, medical equipment, electronics, batteries and advanced defense systems.
The U.S. was once a top producer of rare earth minerals, but has been knocked off by China. China currently dominates the global supply chain with access to 60% of the world’s supply, but Greenland could be a “game changer”, according to national security attorney Irina Tsukerman.
