Trump goes after Greenland: The long history of the US trying to take over the island

Buying, or annexing a foreign territory by force, might seem like an idea totally out of place in a 21st century world. But Trump is not exactly a conventional leader. Besides, the Greenland offer has a history that goes beyond Trump.

Trump’s earlier offer

This is not the first time that Trump has expressed his desire for Greenland. He had done so during his first term as well. In August 2019, he had cancelled a scheduled visit to Denmark apparently because Frederiksen, who was Prime Minister of Denmark then too, had turned down his offer to buy Greenland, calling it “absurd”.

Trump was well into the third year of his Presidency at that time, and within a few months, the Covid-19 pandemic had pushed everything else to the backburner.

This time Trump began early, even before taking office. Within days of his public statement, his son Donald Trump Jr made a visit to Greenland, ostensibly on a leisure trip.

In his latest remarks on the issue, Trump said he knew the people of Greenland were in favour of joining America.

“I don’t know what claim Denmark has to (the island), but it would be engaging in a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen (let America take Greenland),” he said, insisting that he wanted the island not for America but for the “free world”.

“It really has to do with the freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the United States, other than that we are the one that can provide the freedom, they (Denmark) can’t,” he said.

US wanted it in 1940s also

The American interest in Greenland goes much longer back in history. Way back in 1946, American officials put forward a proposal to buy Greenland from Denmark. That offer followed a 1941 agreement between the United States and Denmark over the defence of Greenland, which allowed US troops to be based on Greenland for the first time. At that time, German forces had already taken over Denmark and there was the threat of Greenland being attacked as well.

Denmark had rejected the 1946 offer. “While we owe much to America, I do not feel that we owe them the whole island of Greenland,” the then Danish foreign minister Gustav Rasmussen, to whom the offer had been made, had said.

Denmark, however, did allow the US much greater access to Greenland through several subsequent agreements. The US, thus, is not a complete outsider to Greenland. It has stakes and interests in Greenland as well as the wider Arctic region.

Renewed attempt

The 1946 offer was based on security considerations. The United States had entered Greenland in 1941 to counter potential German aggression. After the second World War, however, it wanted control of Greenland to neutralise Soviet Union influence in the Arctic region. It had mentioned the emergence of “modern weapons” to push for its case in the 1946 proposal. Through subsequent agreements, the US not just set up military bases — including the Pituffik Space Base, earlier the Thule Air Base — but also built a nuclear reactor and a facility to dispose of nuclear waste.

The competition with the Soviet Union, and its successor state Russia, is no longer that keen. The renewed attempt to acquire Greenland under Trump is now being seen as prompted by the desire to counter the rising influence of China in the region.

Greenland is mineral-rich, having large deposits of traditional resources like gold, nickel and cobalt, but also some of the biggest reserves of rare earth minerals like dysprosium, praseodymium, neodymium, and terbium. Of the 34 classified rare earth minerals, Greenland has about 23. It is these that have brought the island a lot of attention, along with several prospecting mining companies.

The rare earth minerals have suddenly gained prominence because of their use in critical emerging technologies in the renewable energy sector, new military applications, and consumer electronics. Outside of Greenland, these critical minerals are heavily concentrated in China, which controls the bulk of the global production and supply.

Crucially, China too has entered Greenland in a big way. Chinese companies are very actively involved in prospecting, mining and processing these mineral resources. Chinese companies now account for 11 per cent of the investments in the mineral sector in Greenland, just behind Australia and the United States, data from the island’s mineral department shows.

The China shadow

The Chinese presence is not limited to the mineral sector in Greenland. It has also been involved in creation of new infrastructure in Greenland, aimed at facilitating greater usage of Arctic sea routes. In 2018, it released a white paper on its Arctic policy, in which it unveiled plans of creating a ‘Polar Silk Road’, an extension of its Belt and Road Initiative in Asia and Europe.

The United States, with its defence assets in Greenland, is of course unnerved by these developments, and has even tried to dissuade Denmark from allowing too many Chinese companies in the island.

Trump acknowledged the Chinese incursions in the area in his remarks on Saturday. “Right now, you have Russian ships, you have Chinese ships, you have ships from various countries (in the area). It is not a good situation,” he said.

The United States has many motivations to try and gain control over Greenland, but the growing footprint of China seems to be the biggest reason behind Trump’s repeated attempts to acquire the world’s largest island.