By Anders Lorenzen

The incoming US President, Donald Trump, has continued his policy announcements about Greenland, saying that US ownership of the world’s largest island is a key objective for his incoming government for strategic and economic reasons. His statements are threatening and bullying tactics towards Denmark and Greenland. He said that if Denmark were to oppose the sale of Greenland, he would impose substantial trade tariffs on the Scandinavian country.

He has made several claims about Canada and the Panama Canal alongside his desire to own Greenland.

Climate change makes Greenland attractive to Trump

During Trump’s first term as president and during his recent presidential campaign, he has reaffirmed his view that climate change is a hoax and has rejected the scientific consensus on climate change. 

But, in private, his views might be different. The former Trump national security adviser, Robert C O’Brien, said last week that a changing climate was a factor in Trump’s increasingly strong interest in Greenland.

Highway to the Arctic

To Fox News, O’Brien said: Greenland is a highway from the Arctic to the US, is strategically very important to the Arctic and will be a critical battleground of the future as the climate gets warmer”.

Many people are concerned about the warming of the Arctic for various reasons.  Many see mining opportunities, scarce earth metals, and exploitation of other natural resources such as oil.  Additionally, the Arctic Ocean was, until very recently, almost permanently frozen. But it is now increasingly ice-free, allowing for new shipping and trade routes. This is also one of the reasons that China has become increasingly interested in the region.

An attractive proposition

Those combined factors could be the main reasons for Trump’s interest.  The economic possibilities are attractive, and given the scaling up of Chinese activities in the region, the geo-political challenges make the US more vulnerable.

Trump this week refused to rule out using military force to bully and threaten Denmark to force them to sell Greenland to the US.

The US and Denmark renewed and strengthened their defence cooperation as recently as last year.