U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States needs Greenland, pointing to the Arctic island’s importance for security, minerals and trade. Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, and its government has opposed Trump’s overtures, saying the people of Greenland will decide their own future.
Greenland sits above the Arctic Circle, with about 80% of the island lying north of it. More than two-thirds of Greenland’s territory falls within the Arctic Circle, and the island is located off the northeastern coast of Canada. The report put Greenland’s population at about 56,000 people, mostly Inuit.
The strategic argument begins with location. Greenland is framed as a key part of defending North America, a role that dates to the post-World War II era. The report said the U.S. occupied Greenland to ensure it did not fall into Nazi Germany’s hands and to protect crucial North Atlantic shipping lanes.
After the Cold War, the Arctic was largely described as an area of international cooperation, the report said. But climate change is thinning Arctic ice, raising expectations of new sea routes such as a northwest passage and helping revive competition over mineral access. The report tied that renewed competition to Russia, China and other countries.
The security dimension in the report described multiple flashpoints. It said China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in 2018 and announced plans for a “Polar Silk Road” as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. It also said Mike Pompeo rejected China’s approach, asking: “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?”
The report said Russia has sought to assert influence over wide areas of the Arctic while competing with the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway. It said Moscow has also sought to boost its military presence in the polar region, described as home to Russia’s Northern Fleet and as a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons. Russian military officials, the report said, have stated the site is ready for resuming tests if necessary.
It added that Russia’s military has been restoring old Soviet infrastructure in the Arctic and building new facilities. Since 2014, the report said, Russia has opened several military bases in the Arctic and worked on reconstructing airfields, with European leaders’ concerns heightened since Russia launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
On the U.S. role, the report said the U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It said Pituffik supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO. The report also described Greenland as guarding part of the GIUK gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.
The report included commentary from Thomas Crosbie, an associate professor of military operations at the Royal Danish Defense College. Crosbie told The Associated Press that the United States would gain no advantage if its flag were flying in Nuuk rather than the Greenlandic flag, saying, “The United States will gain no advantage if its flag is flying in Nuuk (Greenland’s capital) versus the Greenlandic flag,” and “There’s no benefits to them because they already enjoy all of the advantages they want.”
Crosbie added that if the U.S. wanted specific security access improvements, those would be provided as a matter of course as a trusted ally, saying, “If there’s any specific security access that they want to improve American security, they’ll be given it as a matter of course, as a trusted ally.” He said, “So this has nothing to do with improving national security for the United States.”
The report said Denmark has also been strengthening its military posture around Greenland. It said Denmark’s parliament approved a bill last June to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil, widening a 2023 agreement with the Biden administration that gave U.S. troops broad access to Danish air bases. It said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen wrote that Denmark could terminate the agreement if the U.S. tries to annex all or part of Greenland.
Denmark’s own planning, the report said, includes a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement announced last year with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The report said the plan is intended to improve surveillance and sovereignty capabilities in the region, and includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.
The report said Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk and is tasked with “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It also said the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol—described as an elite Danish naval unit for long-range reconnaissance—has smaller stations across Greenland and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness.
Beyond security, the report tied Greenland’s minerals to global trade competition. It described Greenland as a rich source of rare earth minerals that are used in cellphones, computers, batteries and other high-tech gadgets. It said the interest from the U.S. and other Western powers is aimed at easing China’s dominance of the market for critical minerals.
The report said developing mineral resources on Greenland is challenging due to harsh climate conditions and strict environmental controls, which it said have been a hurdle for potential investors.