Greenland Open to Cooperation with US on Natural Resources, Minister Says
Greenland’s Minister for Independence and Foreign Affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, announced on Thursday that the island is willing to discuss potential business cooperation with the United States, including the development of Greenland’s mineral sector, including critical minerals, and other relevant areas.
While Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte B. Egede’s predecessor in the matter, Motzfeldt, rejected Trump’s plan to annex Greenland, she acknowledged the importance of the island in the national security interests of the United States. “We understand and recognize that Greenland plays a decisive and important role for the national security interests of the USA” she said. However, Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people, and only they should decide on the development and future of the island, she added.
Trump had previously stated that the US needs Greenland for national security, without specifying the measures that would be taken to achieve this goal. The US already has a significant military base on the island, which Motzfeldt referred to.
It is believed that Trump’s move may also be driven by the largely untapped natural resources of Greenland, which includes significant deposits of gold, metals, uranium, and rare earth elements. However, there is sometimes resistance to the extraction of these resources.
Trump is also wary of the Chinese and Russian influence in the region, which he views as essentially America’s backyard. The US wants to push back against Russian influence in the Arctic.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen plans to speak with the incoming US President Donald Trump about his ambitions. Frederiksen’s office has already made contact with Trump, but she has not spoken with him yet. She does not believe Trump will try to annex Greenland by force, saying, “We have no reason to assume that would happen.”
It is unclear how Trump plans to acquire Greenland. The island was a Danish colony until 1953 and is now a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Since 2009, Greenland has the right to declare independence through a referendum. If this happens, Greenland could potentially choose to associate with the US, perhaps through an association agreement like those with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau in the Pacific.