Foreign ministers say Trump set on "conquering" Greenland - National & International News -

Foreign ministers say Trump set on “conquering” Greenland

Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland respectively, met with Trump administration officials in Washington, DC, this week. They were hoping to come to some mutually acceptable agreement with the US amid Trump’s recent demands for the US to acquire Greenland for the US. However, after hours of talks on security and offers of compromises and, both Motzfeld and Rasmussen said they had made little headway. “We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen told reporters. “It’s clear that the President has this wish of conquering over Greenland”.

Trump also doubled down on his demands publicly, saying anything less than the US owning and controlling all of Greenland was “unacceptable”.

Greenland is a self-governed territory of Denmark. Its citizens European citizens, and like many Europeans they have free healthcare and university education. A poll conducted nearly one year ago (after Trump began raising the subject of a US takeover) showed that only 6% of Greenlanders wanted Greenland to join the US. Furthermore, a poll released this week found that only 17% of Americans approve of Trump’s plan to takeover Greenland.

Why does Trump want Greenland?

Trump claims acquiring Greenland is necessary due to security concerns. Both Danish and Greenlander officials have refuted Trump’s claim that “Chinese and Russian ships” are frequenting the island. Greenland is already home to one of America’s largest foreign military bases, Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. At the height of the Cold War, more than 10,000 American and Danish military personnel were stationed at Thule. Now, the base hosts only about 150 US Air Force and Space Force personnel.

Under existing NATO treaties, the US already has almost unlimited freedom to operate militarily in Greenland. However, Trump’s threats to the island (and to the sovereignty of NATO ally Denmark) are risking the worst rupture in the history of the post-WWII military alliance.

Some believe that Trump’s true interest in Greenland centers on the territory’s vast untapped mineral wealth. These resources have remained unexploited for good reason. The deposits are located within Greenland’s frozen, mountainous and largely inaccessible interior. Even if one disregards local environmental objections, the enormous logistical difficulties of large-scale mining operations in Greenland’s interior would make them financially untenable.

None of this has stopped Ron Lauder (heir to the Estee Lauder make-up fortune and personal friend of Trump’s) from buying up assets in Greenland. A 2018 visit to the Trump White House by Lauder may have marked the beginning of Trump’s fascination with Greenland.

Buying Greenland could cost $700 billion.