American President Donald Trump East fixed on the takeover of Greenland, a vast and sparsely populated territory rich in minerals island located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s so strategic,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships everywhere. We need Greenland from a national security perspective.”
His comments, which follow a bold statement military operation in Venezuela, sounded the alarm across Europe, with Denmark warning that a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of the NATO military alliance.
But the American president has not yet hesitated. Indeed, the White House further escalated transatlantic tensions on Tuesday, saying Trump and his team were considering “a range of options” for integrating the self-governing Danish territory into the United States, including “using the US military”.
Located between the United States and Russia, Greenland has long been seen as an area of high strategic importance, particularly with regard to Arctic security.
The territory of nearly 57,000 people lies close to new Arctic shipping routes, with rapidly melting ice creating opportunities for significantly reduce Asia-Europe travel times relative to the Suez Canal.
Greenland also straddles what is known as the GIUK divide, a naval chokepoint between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom that connects the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.
Besides its strategic geopolitical position, Greenland is known for an abundance of unexploited raw materialsfrom oil and gas reserves to critical mineral deposits and a treasure trove of rare earth elements.
These critical minerals and rare earth elements are essential components of emerging technologies, such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, energy storage technologies and national security applications. Last year, China repeatedly sought to leverage its near-monopoly on rare earths to pressure the United States.
“Trump is a real estate expert,” Clayton Allen, chief of staff at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, told CNBC via video call.
“Greenland has some of the most valuable territories in terms of economic benefits and strategic defense for the next three to five decades.”
Navigation routes Certainly, the United States is already present in Greenland. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, is located in northwest Greenland, just across Baffin Bay from Nunavut, Canada.
It is estimated that around 150 American soldiers are permanently stationed there, compared to around 6,000 during the Cold War.
“For good reason, the United States has an early warning air base in northwest Greenland, because the shortest path for a Russian ballistic missile to reach the continental United States is through Greenland and the North Pole,” said Otto Svendsen, a research associate in the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, a Washington-based think tank.
The base, which also has an active airfield and is home to the world’s northernmost deep-water port, traditionally plays a central role in monitoring Russian submarines passing through the GIUK breach, Svendsen said.
“A more recent and emerging threat or factor is the fact that Greenland straddles two potential shipping routes through the Arctic, the Northwest Passage and the transpolar shipping route,” Svendsen told CNBC by phone.
“And as climate change continues to make these routes more viable, there are also commercial interests that add to the national security value of the island,” he added.
A fishing boat sails around icebergs that broke off from the Jakobshavn Glacier and float in Disko Bay on March 10, 2025, in Ilulissat, Greenland.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Opinion polls have already watch that Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose American control, while a strong majority supports Danish independence.
“Golden Dome” Analysts say Greenland could prove useful to the United States as a staging ground for a greater defensive presence and as a location for U.S. missile interceptors — particularly in the context of one of the Trump administration’s key policies: a “Golden dome”missile defense system.
The multi-billion dollar initiative, launched in May last year and often compared to Israel’s “Iron Dome”, is a visionary plan designed to protect the United States from all missile attacks.
Learn more
“The United States needs access to the Arctic and they don’t really have direct access today. Greenland has a lot of it. The United States needs air defenses deployed closer and closer to Russia to combat next-generation weapons that are not currently defensible with what we have. Greenland provides that,” said Allen of Eurasia Group.
“Trump wants to build a ‘Golden Dome’ over the United States,” he continued. “It will partly depend on Greenland.”
National or economic security? For some, Trump’s assertion that the annexation of Greenland is an essential part of US national security has raised eyebrows. The statement marks a notable change in tone from nearly a year ago, when then-President-elect quoted “economic security” as the main factor in the annexation of the island.
Marion Messmer, director of the international security program at the Chatham House think tank in London, agreed that it is true to say that Russia and China have both increased their military activities in the Arctic in recent years – and that if Moscow launched missiles at the United States, they would likely fly over Greenland.
“However, what is not clear is why Washington needs full control over Greenland to defend itself,” Messmer said. said in a written analysis published Tuesday.
She cited the fact that the United States already has a presence at the Pituffik space base, as well as a decades-old defense agreement with Denmark that allows Washington to continue using it.
“During the Cold War, the United States stationed up to 6,000 troops in various camps across the island,” Messmer said. “He could presumably increase his troop presence again if he felt he needed a greater presence in the region – without challenging Danish sovereignty.”
