Throughout his second term, US President Donald Trump has trained his focus on a sprawling but sparsely populated island that stretches into the Arctic circle. <\/p>\n
The United States needs that island \u2013 Greenland, a territory of US ally Denmark \u2013 \u201cvery badly,\u201d Trump said in an NBC interview that aired on Sunday, echoing comments he\u2019s made repeatedly in recent months. <\/p>\n
\u201cGreenland is a very small amount of people, which we\u2019ll take care of, and we\u2019ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need <\/strong>that for international security,\u201d he said, while adding, when asked, that he would not \u201crule out\u201d taking the island by force. <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s justification? There were Russian and Chinese boats, \u201cgun ships all over the place \u2014 aircraft carriers, gun ships \u2014 going up and down the coast of Greenland,\u201d he said Sunday. \u201cWe need that to be protected.\u201d <\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance laid a similar assessment during a visit to the US\u2019 singular military installation on the island, the Pituffik Space Base, in March. <\/p>\n The base, which lies some 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, was not well protected from \u201caggressive incursions\u201d from Russia and China, Vance told troops during an address at that time. <\/p>\n \u201cDenmark has not kept pace in devoting the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and, in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and from other nations,\u201d Vance said \u2013 a claim Denmark disputes. <\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s interest in Greenland appears to be part of what Washington sees as a broader competition for power in the Arctic, where Russia is a dominant force and China aspires to expand its footprint and capabilities. <\/p>\n But, when it comes to Greenland, experts are puzzled by the administration\u2019s characterization. <\/p>\n Chinese firms, like others, have mounted efforts to develop expensive and geologically challenging mining projects on the resource-rich island. They\u2019ve also <\/em>bid on <\/em>constructing airfields there \u2013 initiatives observers see as linked to Beijing\u2019s broader aims to enhance its role in the Arctic and gain control of critical minerals. <\/p>\n But those projects have all fizzled, experts say, either due to business reasons or as governments in both Greenland\u2019s capital Nuuk and US NATO partner Copenhagen rebuffed them, at times reportedly under pressure from Washington. <\/p>\n That\u2019s left \u201calmost no Chinese footprint in Greenland,\u201d outside a limited presence in the fishing industry, according to Andreas \u00d8sthagen, a senior researcher at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Norway, who added: \u201cThere is no evidence of any \u2018aggressive incursions\u2019 by any actor in Greenland, at least not publicly available.\u201d <\/p>\n And while experts say that there is Russian military activity across regional northern seas and China has scaled up naval activities off Alaska in recent years, in addition to its research and commercial operations in the broader Arctic, there\u2019s been no publicly known signs of Chinese military vessels operating in the waters around Greenland. <\/p>\n Unless the administration provides more details, \u201cI assume that Trump and his advisors are conflating various trends taking place in \u2018the Arctic,\u2019 but which in fact take place in specific (other) parts\u201d in and around the Arctic, said \u00d8sthagen. <\/p>\n When a reporter asked JD Vance earlier this year if he had been briefed on specific threats from China and Russia on Greenland and if these were military in nature, Vance said he didn\u2019t \u201cwant to get too specific.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cBut we know the Chinese are very, very interested in this island. We have seen some of the economic pressures they have tried to place on Greenland. We know that they are increasingly engaging in military training and military interests certainly. They have started to describe themselves as a \u2018near Arctic power\u2019 \u2013 part of that is justifying taking a firm interest in Greenland and some of the surrounding territories,\u201d he said, in reference to the \u201cnear Arctic state\u201d term that China has used for more than a decade. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen very strong evidence that both the Chinese and the Russians are interested in Greenland. Why wouldn\u2019t they be interested in Greenland?\u201d he added. <\/p>\n When asked to comment on Trump administration statements, Beijing has said \u201crelations between countries should be handled in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN.\u201d It\u2019s also defended its adherence to \u201cbasic principles of respect, cooperation, win-win result and sustainability in engaging in Arctic affairs.\u201d <\/p>\n Close observers agree that China has looked to ramp up ties and investment in the island since the early 2000s \u2013 and has many reasons to be interested. <\/p>\n Greenland is rich in minerals important to the fabrication of military and high-tech goods, and, as Arctic ice melts, sea lanes alongside it are expected to <\/strong>become more important for global shipping. <\/p>\n The island and its adjacent waterways are also strategically important to the US \u2013 and its rivals. Washington\u2019s military base plays a critical role detecting missile threats and conducting space surveillance. <\/p>\n Russia, a dominant military force in the Arctic with an expansive Arctic Ocean coastline, is seen by observers and US intelligence as interested in nearby naval routes, which form a key strategic chokepoint stretching from Greenland toward the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n When it comes to China, \u201cI\u2019ve yet to see any coast guard vessels, any naval vessels, let alone aircraft carriers\u201d in waters near Greenland, said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, noting that Chinese aircraft carriers are \u201cconfined to the Pacific Ocean.\u201d <\/p>\n Chinese researchers have written about the island\u2019s potential importance for its own critical mineral supply chains \u2013 as well as its strategic significance as an entry point for China to influence Arctic affairs and actualize its \u201cpolar silk road\u201d \u2013 a vision to extend leader Xi Jinping\u2019s Belt and Road global infrastructure building drive across the top of the world. <\/p>\n Last year, Beijing dispatched its special representative on European Affairs to Greenland <\/strong>for talks on economic cooperation, while Nuuk in 2021 opened a representation office in Beijing \u2013 one of only five globally \u2013 and sent delegations to the Chinese capital in the past. <\/p>\n But efforts from Chinese firms to gain a physical foothold in Greenland or access its raw materials have been ill-fated. <\/p>\n Chinese companies did become involved in four major mining projects in Greenland, all initiated between 2009 and 2015, but those have either dissolved or stalled, according to experts and research from the Danish Institute for International Studies. <\/p>\n The most well-known of those projects, at a mine in coastal Kvanefjeld, would have allowed a Chinese-funded Australian venture to operate what the company described as a project with the potential to become \u201cthe most significant western world producer of critical rare earths.\u201d <\/p>\n The project, however, was blocked in 2021 when the government restricted mining deposits with certain uranium concentrations, citing environmental concerns. The company has launched an arbitration case and expressed hope that a new government elected earlier this year could look more favorably on the project. <\/p>\n But currently, \u201cChina has no footprint at all in Greenland mining,\u201d according to Marc Lanteigne, a professor at the University of Troms\u00f8: The Arctic University of Norway, who described China\u2019s footprint on Greenland is \u201calmost negligible\u201d besides \u201cvery limited cooperation in seafood trade.\u201d <\/p>\n Lanteigne also noted how the Danish government, under pressure from the United States, stepped in to finance airport refurbishment projects after a Chinese firm was shortlisted as a potential contractor, with the firm withdrawing its bid. <\/p>\n The Danish government in 2016 also blocked a Hong Kong firm\u2019s bid to purchase an abandoned naval facility. Plans in 2017 from the Chinese Academic of Sciences to build a research station also didn\u2019t get government approval, according to researchers. <\/p>\n Denmark has been \u201cquite diligent\u201d in looking to ensure that Greenland\u2019s economic sovereignty is not \u201ctransferred to any degree to China,\u201d said Lanteigne. \u201cThere has been a great deal of Danish-American cooperation \u2026 to monitor Greenland to make sure that there are no overt security threats.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile, a 1951 agreement allows the US to establish American military bases on the island. <\/p>\n That raises the question of why Washington says it needs to take control of Greenland \u2013 an expansionist rhetoric that has echoes of the <\/strong>president\u2019s earlier calls to take control of the Panama Canal, over false claims that China \u201coperates\u201d the key waterway. <\/p>\n Greenland has appeared keen to work with US firms on mining projects and the US\u2019 ability to operate its military on the island would be unlikely to change even if Greenland became independent in the future, observers say. <\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that Greenland, as an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark, has managed its relations to the great powers on its own accord,\u201d said Ties Dams, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute think tank in the Netherlands. <\/p>\n \u201cIf Vance\u2019s comments are indeed a prologue to a military incursion by the US, then the US is the real threat to Greenland\u2019s cherished and longstanding autonomy,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n In response to earlier comments from Trump, Greenland\u2019s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen firmly stated that the US \u201cwon\u2019t get\u201d Greenland as Trump has previously suggested. <\/p>\n Denmark\u2019s Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen has also said Denmark was \u201copen to criticism\u201d by the US but had already \u201cstepped up\u201d investment in Arctic security and remained open to enhanced cooperation with the United States. <\/p>\n The US, meanwhile, some two weeks after Vance\u2019s visit, announced it had removed Pituffik Space Base commander Col. Susannah Meyers. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that \u201cactions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump\u2019s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense,\u201d in a post on X that linked to a Military.com article, an independent outlet, that said Meyers had sent an email to base staff distancing herself from Vance\u2019s visit. <\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s focus on Greenland \u2013 and China\u2019s in recent years \u2013 come amid increasing focus on the Arctic as an arena for rivalry between the world\u2019s great powers. <\/p>\n China announced its Arctic strategy in a 2018 white paper, where it declared itself \u201can active participant, builder and contributor in Arctic affairs.\u201d <\/p>\n The document also laid out its aims to explore, conduct research and combat climate change in the Arctic \u2013 as well as its ambitions to develop shipping routes and become more involved in fishing and resource extraction, while building its polar silk road. <\/p>\n Today, China has built out its ice breaker fleet, operates research stations in Norway and Iceland, and has partnered with international scientists on a range of projects, in additional to some commercial activities in the non-Russian Arctic. <\/p>\n But growing suspicion in Europe about Beijing\u2019s ambitions in the region \u2013 and what experts say is the likely dual military use of its scientific data and research missions \u2013 have led to similar instances of cancelled or rejected projects elsewhere in Europe. <\/p>\n \u201cChina is in a position now where pretty much its only entry ticket to the Arctic is through Russia,\u201d said Lanteigne from the University of Troms\u00f8. <\/p>\n China has been an important investor in Russian energy extraction and emerged as a dominant presence on increasingly viable shipping lanes along Russia\u2019s Arctic coastline, though at least some of those operations have been affected by Chinese firms not wanting to run afoul of international sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, there are other areas of the Arctic where Russia genuinely has been making \u201csomewhat aggressive incursions,\u201d according to \u00d8sthagen of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. That\u2019s particularly in \u201cthe European Arctic, where Norway and Finland must manage an increasingly belligerent Russian neighbor,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s not more Russian activity off the coast of Greenland than elsewhere \u2013 in fact, there\u2019s less.\u201d <\/p>\n And China has \u201cscaled up its naval \u2013 and eventually also airborne \u2013 activity off Alaska in recent years,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Last year, Russian and Chinese jets were spotted for the first time conducting a joint patrol near Alaska. Months later, Chinese and Russia coastguards also had a first joint patrol in Arctic waters, according to Chinese state media. The two countries have also conducted joint exercises in the Baltic Sea in Europe and the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska in past years. <\/p>\n But observers say Russia is likely to remain wary of a Chinese security presence in its Arctic region, and Beijing is likely to continue to focus on looking for ways to engage economically, scientifically and diplomatically in the broader region. <\/p>\n That\u2019s especially as Beijing expects the US to try \u201cto push China off that area of the map,\u201d according to Dams of the Clingendael Institute. <\/p>\n China \u201cwill resist absolutely, trusting the US strategy of clinging to supremacy will fail on its own accord, if only given time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout his second term, US President Donald Trump has trained his focus on a sprawling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} \u2018Why wouldn\u2019t they be interested in Greenland?\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018The real threat\u2019?<\/h2>\n