Location, location, location: Greenland’s place above the Arctic Circle makes the world’s largest island a key a part of safety technique. However for whom?
Growing worldwide tensions, international warming and the altering world financial system have put Greenland on the coronary heart of the talk over international commerce and safety, and U.S. President Donald Trump needs to ensure his nation controls this mineral-rich island that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally that has rejected Trump’s overtures. Greenland’s personal authorities additionally opposes U.S. designs on the island, saying the individuals of Greenland will resolve their very own future.
The island, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is house to about 56,000 principally Inuit individuals who till now have been largely ignored by the remainder of the world.
Right here’s why Greenland is strategically essential to Arctic safety:
Greenland’s location is essential
Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada, with greater than two-thirds of its territory mendacity throughout the Arctic Circle. That has made it essential to the protection of North America since World Battle II, when the U.S. occupied Greenland to make sure it didn’t fall into the arms of Nazi Germany and to guard essential North Atlantic transport lanes.
Safety threats to the Arctic
In 2018, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in an effort to realize extra affect within the area. China has additionally introduced plans to construct a “Polar Silk Road” as a part of its international Belt and Street Initiative, which has created financial hyperlinks with international locations world wide.
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s transfer, saying: “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?”
In the meantime, Russia has sought to claim its affect over broad areas of the Arctic in competitors with the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway. Moscow has additionally sought to spice up its army presence within the polar area, house to its Northern Fleet and a web site the place the Soviet Union examined nuclear weapons. Russian army officers have mentioned that the location is prepared for resuming the assessments, if obligatory.
The Russian army lately has been restoring previous Soviet infrastructure within the Arctic and constructing new services. Since 2014, the Russian army has opened a number of army bases within the Arctic and labored on reconstructing airfields.
European leaders’ issues have been heightened following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Final yr, Russian President Vladimir Putin famous that Russia is frightened about NATO’s actions within the Arctic and can reply by strengthening the potential of its armed forces there.
“Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernizing military infrastructure,” Putin mentioned in March at a coverage discussion board within the Arctic port of Murmansk.
He added, nonetheless, that Moscow was holding the door open to broader worldwide cooperation within the area.
U.S. army presence in Greenland
The U.S. Division of Protection operates the distant Pituffik House Base in northwestern Greenland, which was constructed after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Protection of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It helps missile warning, missile protection and area surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
Greenland additionally guards half of what’s often known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Hole, the place NATO displays Russian naval actions within the North Atlantic.
Danish armed forces in Greenland
Denmark is transferring to strengthen its army presence round Greenland and within the wider North Atlantic. Final yr, the federal government introduced a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) settlement with events together with the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, one other self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”
The plan consists of three new Arctic naval vessels, two further long-range surveillance drones and satellite tv for pc capability.
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and tasked with the “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” in response to its web site. It has smaller satellite tv for pc stations throughout the island.
The Sirius Canine Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty within the Arctic wilderness, can be stationed in Greenland.
Wealthy supply of uncommon earth minerals
Greenland can be a wealthy supply of the so-called uncommon earth minerals which can be a key part of cellphones, computer systems, batteries and different hi-tech devices which can be anticipated to energy the world’s financial system within the coming a long time.
That has attracted the curiosity of the U.S. and different Western powers as they attempt to ease China’s dominance of the marketplace for these vital minerals.
Growth of Greenland’s mineral sources is difficult due to the island’s harsh local weather, whereas strict environmental controls have proved a further hurdle for potential traders.
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Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
