President-elect Donald Trump has made no bones about the United States possibly acquiring Greenland, the vast territory currently owned by Denmark. There are excellent reasons for Trump to do so, considering Greenland’s necessity for U.S. security purposes and its vital rare earth mineral deposits that could protect the U.S. as communist China maneuvers to get global control of those essential minerals. Greenland has the world’s largest deposits of rare earth minerals outside of China.
First, a little history: The Norwegian explorer Erik the Red is credited with naming the island Greenland in the 10th century to make it sound more welcoming. In 1380, Norway came under Danish rule. Around the end of the 19th century, some American explorers, including Robert Peary, explored the northern sections of Greenland, leading to claims that America had territorial rights in the area.
Germany sank the Lusitania in 1915 during World War I; President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing thought that Germany might annex Denmark, permitting Germany to grab the Danish West Indies as a naval or submarine base and then attack shipping in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Denmark required the U.S. to first recognize the Danish claim over the whole of Greenland; the United States government then bought the West Indies and changed the name to the Virgin Islands of the United States. Denmark formally declared sovereignty over all of Greenland in 1921.
The administration of President Harry Truman reportedly considered buying Greenland in 1946 for $100 million, but Denmark refused to sell it.
In 1951, the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Agreement. It stated that “armed forces of the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may make use of facilities in Greenland in defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area.”
“A decades-old defense treaty between Denmark and the U.S. gives the U.S. military virtually unlimited rights in Greenland at America’s northernmost base, Thule Air Base,” The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019. “Located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it includes a radar station that is part of a U.S. ballistic missile early-warning system. The base is also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.”
As Matthew Shoemaker noted in The Hill: “Greenland’s strategic importance has only increased. A warming Arctic is opening new shipping routes and exposing vast mineral resources, attracting the attention of global powers like China and Russia. … The island’s proximity to North America — just a few hours’ flight from major U.S. cities — underscores its critical role in homeland defense.”
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In 2018, the Trump administration warned Denmark not to allow China, which wanted to build three airports in Greenland, to do so. China could potentially use the airports for warplanes.
As far as the threat of China gaining global control over rare earth minerals, it is important to note the following:
“Rare earth elements (REEs) – a group of 17 critical metals – are indispensable components in military defense systems, consumer electronics and renewable energy technologies,” NewsSecurityBeat reported. “Despite more than a decade of sustained efforts by Western countries and companies to loosen China’s grip, Beijing, by far remains the top player in the REE global mining, processing and refining sectors. … China has an effective monopoly over processing major heavy rare earths – Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb), and Light Rare Earths – Neodymium (Nd) and Praseodymium (Pr). … From 1950 to October 2018, China filed over 25,000 rare earth patents, surpassing the US’ 10,000.“
“Greenland contains some of the largest deposits of rare earth elements (REE) on Earth, such as yttrium, scandium, neodymium and dysprosium,” Innovation News Network stated. “These REEs have unique properties that make them ideal for several industrial applications due to their ability to withstand extreme temperatures or chemical agents.”
In addition, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there could be 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off the coast of Greenland, and the Arctic Circle possibly has another 90 billion barrels of oil.
