Yesterday Trump said he did not rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of Greenland. The comments came after he said repeatedly that the United States should own or control Greenland, an autonomous territory ruled by Denmark.
Trump’s visions are “disconnected from the principles of humanity”, Najaaraq Møller, a member of Inatsisartut, the Greenland parliament, told The i Paper.
She said the history of colonisation was one of ignoring the needs of indigenous peoples. “In this era, where powerful leaders often prioritise dominance and profit over humanity, the world faces significant challenges,” she said. “It is therefore imperative that all parties engage in meaningful, respectful dialogue before making decisions of great consequence.”
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, is in Greenland this week on a ‘private visit’ (Photo: Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Trump said last month that buying the Arctic island was an “absolute necessity” for the US, repeating a proposal he made in 2019 during his first term.
Greenland has extensive mineral and other natural resources, from oil to rare earth minerals, and thanks to its proximity to both Russia and the Arctic region, it is a strategic asset for the West.
The US first suggested buying Greenland in the 1860s, and in the 1940s President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for the island. While rejected, the US was allowed to install its military there in the Pituffik Space Base.
Taking Greenland by force would be against international law, says Dr Martin Bayly, a professor in international relations at LSE. “While technically, anything’s possible – and we’ve seen how land can be seized as it has been in Ukraine – taking Greenland today would require military force, and it would go against the basic principle of international law.”
“There are lots of territories around the world that remain under control of what were former imperial powers – including some British dependencies,” Bayly says. “So it’s not surprising that powerful states like the United States would seek to recover some of the territorial links. We’d like to think that empire is a thing of the past, but actually, it’s all around us in international politics.”
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Read MoreAnderson suggests Trump is simply expressing his base impulses. “Trump repeatedly says things he wants, whether legally feasible or realistic or not, and just putting it out there,” he says.
The idea of buying a territory is also outdated, says Emil Havstrup a researcher at the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands. “It is a hallmark of a bygone age, where territories were bought and sold,” he says, noting that there are precedents for Denmark: it sold three Virgin Islands to the US a little over a century ago. “But that was also very contentious, and the Danish Prime Minister has said is a very undemocratic way to go about it.”
“It is affectionately referred to as the ‘America’s burglar alarm’, because of all the early warning systems there. So do they want to re-evaluate the security arrangement, and is it related to natural resources in the region?”
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