<

div data-component-name=”ui-article-body” data-highlight-intro=”true”>

  Since winning re-election, President-elect Donald Trump has expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland.

His aims surrounding Greenland coincide with his repeated claims that Canada should become the 51st state of the US and him directing the US military to draw up options to achieve his goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.

Here is everything you need to know about the US president’s proposals and if they could actually happen.

Why does Trump want Greenland?

National security purposes

Greenland is the world’s largest island and a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. With a population of 57,000, it has been part of Denmark for 600 years.

It is also a founding member of NATO and home to a large US military base.

Straddling the Arctic circle between the US, Russia and Europe, the island offers a unique geopolitical advantage that America has eyed for over 150 years.

It’s even more valuable as the Arctic opens up more to shipping and trade.

The idea of purchasing Greenland is not a new one for Mr Trump, who raised it as a possibility during his first term in office. But he has since reiterated the benefit it could have for America’s national security.

Rich in natural resources

As well as its location, Greenland holds rich deposits of various natural resources.

Locked inside the island are valuable rare earth minerals needed for telecommunications, as well as uranium, billions of untapped barrels of oil and a vast supply of natural gas that used to be inaccessible but is becoming less so.

Many of the same minerals are currently mostly supplied by China, so other countries such as the US are interested in tapping into available resources closer to home.

A front-row seat to the climate crisis

More than the oil, gas or minerals, Greenland has a lot of ice – and provides a front-row seat to the globe’s climate crisis.

If that ice melts, it would reshape coastlines across the globe and has the potential to dramatically shift weather patterns.

     <div class="sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video callfn" data-account-id="6058004172001" data-amp-iframe-embed="" data-asset-id="3c890c3b-0fac-4f77-9c8f-0d5e06a01a98c" data-asset-path="" data-asset-version="" data-autoplay="false" data-auth-config="" data-caption="Why is Greenland so important? " data-clip-type="" data-component-name="sdc-site-video" data-component-name-alias="ui-sitewide-video" data-competition="" data-copy-url-text="URL copied to clipboard" data-fn="sdc-site-video" data-id="id_3c890c3b-0fac-4f77-9c8f-0d5e06a01a98c" data-is-live-stream="false" data-lite="true" data-options="" data-originator-id="51" data-originator-handle="brightcove-news-gb" data-package-name="" data-provider="brightcove" data-player-id="yjBoKQ5XA" data-playsinline="" data-sensitive="false" data-sdc-id="6796996" data-sdc-video-id="3c890c3b-0fac-4f77-9c8f-0d5e06a01a98c" data-sport-category="" data-state="loading" data-token-state="none" data-video-ad-unit="" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids="" data-video-id="ref:3c890c3b-0fac-4f77-9c8f-0d5e06a01a98c" data-video-type="" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible="true" tabindex="-1" data-closed-captions-position="middle-third" data-show-closed-captions="true" data-show-pip="true" data-show-live-stream-scrubber="true" data-autoload="false">
      <div class="sdc-site-video__inner">
        <div class="sdc-site-video__content" data-role="bridge-controller" style="padding-bottom: calc(100% / ());">
            <p class="sdc-site-video__accessibility-message" data-role="accessibility-message">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
          <span aria-hidden="true" data-role="poster" class="sdc-site-video__poster">
            <img loading="lazy" src="https://e3.365dm.com/25/01/768x432/skynews-michael-clarke-greenland_6797034.jpg?20250111183100" alt="Sky's Michael Clarke " srcset="" aria-hidden="true" class="sdc-site-video__poster-img"/>
          <span class="sdc-site-video__loader"/>
            <span class="sdc-site-video__time">1:44</span>
          </span>

          <video id="id_3c890c3b-0fac-4f77-9c8f-0d5e06a01a98c" data-embed="default" data-application-id="" class="video-js sdc-site-video__tag" controls="" playsinline=""/>
        </div>

        <figcaption class="sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption">

          <span class="ui-media-caption__caption-text" data-role="caption-text">Why is Greenland so important? </span>
        </figcaption>
      </div>
    </div>

In fact, Greenland holds enough ice that if it all melts, the world’s seas would rise by 24ft (7.4m).

Greenland also influences hurricane and winter storm activity. Because of its mountains of ice, it has the power to change patterns in the jet stream, which brings storms across the globe and dictates daily weather.

Often, especially in winter, a blocking system of high pressure off Greenland causes Arctic air to plunge to the west and east, sweeping across North America and Europe, winter weather expert Judah Cohen told the Associated Press.

All five parties in Greenland’s parliament have opposed the idea of selling the island to the US.

In 2018, a former Danish prime minister admitted there had been talks about allowing the US to operate a naval base in Greenland, but the deal fell through.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/greenland-why-does-trump-want-buy-the-arctic-island-and-could-he-actually-do-it-13285350