the essential
Since his re-election, Donald Trump has made numerous provocative outings and displays of expansionist ambitions, threatening foreign territories with annexation. The president-elect focused in particular on Greenland, where his son was received for a private visit on Tuesday January 7. A use of the armed forces to annex the territory has not been excluded.
This is not his first controversy or shocking statement. However, Donald Trump’s latest provocations arouse fear and embarrassment. The future American president, who will take office on January 20, seems unstoppable in his expansionist ambitions. The latest territory on which he has set his sights: Greenland, which he says he wants to annex by force if necessary.
From his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, during a press conference, the president-elect was questioned about the potential use of the army to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark located between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Donald Trump responded that he could not guarantee that he would not use the armed forces.
Donald Trump had already mentioned the “purchase” of Greenland during his first term in 2019. Re-elected last November, he persisted and signed. Just before Christmas, he judged that control of Greenland was “an absolute necessity” for “national security and freedom throughout the world”. On Tuesday, he urged Denmark to “give up” on this autonomous territory. At the same time, his son Donald Trump Jr was in Greenland for a private visit as a “tourist”.
MAXPPP – EMIL STACH
Ritzau Scanpix – EMIL STACH
Coveted natural resources
Donald Trump’s interest in the giant island is no coincidence. He is also not the first American president to suggest the idea of a takeover, already mentioned by Andrew Johnson in the 1860s.
The United States maintains the Pituffik space base in Greenland, the last American military base before the Arctic Circle. The territory is rich in natural resources, notably oil, rare earth minerals and uranium, and it occupies a strategic position for trade, coveted in particular by Russia, reports the BBC. Oil and gas prospecting have nevertheless been prohibited since 2021. The extraction of radioactive materials, including uranium, has been authorized again since 2013, after 25 years of prohibition.
-Global warming and melting ice have made the island’s natural resources more accessible. Rare earths, essential materials for the manufacture of, among other things, electric car batteries, smartphones and even wind turbines, are abundantly present on the Kvanefjeld geological site on the island, the second largest reserve of rare earths. in the world behind China, according to Time.
The Australian company Energy Transition Minerals Ltd (formerly Greenland Minerals) plans to open an open-cast mine there. The main shareholder is the Chinese company Shenghe Resources, partly owned by the Chinese state. China currently holds a virtual monopoly on the production and processing of rare earths. But requests for operating permits have multiplied in recent years, with the United States and the European Union seeking to reshuffle the cards.
“Not for sale”
Real threat or yet another provocation, the response was firm. “We are not for sale and we will not be for sale”, replied the Greenlandic Prime Minister, Múte B Egede “Greenland is for the Greenlanders”, insisted the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on television, upon arrival of Donald Trump Jr at Nuuk airport.
The Danish king took the decision to modify the coat of arms of the kingdom to highlight Greenland and the Faroe Islands, reports the Guardian. A way for King Frederik, who succeeded his mother Queen Margrethe less than a year ago, to clearly indicate his intention to maintain the autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
The country also announced a significant increase in the budget allocated to the defense of Greenland, just hours after Donald Trump’s remarks.
