A few days after entering Venezuela and capturing Nicolás Maduro, the US president focused on Greenland, an autonomous territory that depends on Denmark. Donald Trump assured the media that his country needed to take control of the area for “National Security”: “It is very strategic. Right now Greenland is full of Chinese and Russian ships everywhere. We need Greenland from the point of National Security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Although shortly after the tone was lowered, speaking no longer of invasion, but of purchasing the territory, the idea of a land intervention was not completely ruled out. But is it possible for this to happen? Fernando Arancón and Eduardo Saldaña consider it an “unlikely scenario”, but one that could not be completely ruled out.
Trump’s great barrier in Greenland: environmental policy
“I’m not putting my hand in the fire for anything, but we have to separate the sand from the chaff. Russia and China have very little influence in Greenland and Denmark itself and the European Union itself have already taken care of this, in addition to the United States, a country that has a lot of influence in Greenland through a large military presence that can increase almost at will without consulting either Denmark or Greenland itself,” they explain in the ‘World Order’ section of Julia en la onda.
And then why does Trump talk about purchase or invasion? Because the great barrier that the United States has is that the island’s natural resources are very limited by the extensive environmental legislation that both the Greenlanders and the Danes have: “The Greenlanders are the first who do not want this exploitation of natural resources, largely because it is Denmark that subsidizes the local economy. Greenland is in deficit and Denmark provides the missing money so that the Greenlanders can have a fairly adequate standard of living.”
The gap between Greenland and Denmark that Trump can take advantage of
Denmark is not “especially” opposed to the United States having more presence in Greenland and, in fact, is “quite in agreement” with what it can propose, but the problem is “the ways” of Donald Trump flirting with the idea of an invasion. Given this, it has no other option but to refuse, both to this idea of invasion and to the purchase alternative that was proposed by the United States Administration.
So what option does President Trump have left? The most likely scenario is that “the United States attempts to encourage Greenlandic independence through an independence referendum from Denmark.” In this way, they could negotiate the purchase of the territory with an independent Greenlandic State without it being under the umbrella of either Denmark or the European Union: “A deficit country may be easier to buy.”
“Let’s not think that the Danes and the Greenlanders get along great. Historically, there has been a lot of tension between both governments and there is a curious Greenlandic independence movement. This is where they are going to try to tighten the rope. In fact, they have proposed a meeting with the Greenlandic delegates precisely for that,” they explain.
