Riches, Routes Draw Trump to Greenland

President-elect Donald Trump has set his sights on a vast, ice-covered and sparsely populated island with a strategic location on the edge of the Arctic and a whole lot of mineral riches.

- By Georgi Kantchev

At more than three times the size of Texas, Greenland's ample deposits in rare earths, oil and gas, as well as its commanding position astride crucial trade and military arteries, have made it a focal point for major rival powers including the U.S., China and Russia.

Greenland's rising profile reflects the larger global scramble for the Arctic as climate change opens maritime routes and reorders geopolitics at the top of the world. Russia reopened dozens of Soviet military bases in the Arctic as tensions with the West worsened over the invasion of Ukraine. China has pursued expanding shipping routes through the region's melting ice and exploiting Greenland's natural resources, including minerals used in everything from phones to electric cars and military equipment.

"We need it for national security," Trump said Tuesday, declining to rule out using military force to seize control of Greenland, as well as of the Panama Canal.

The Republican's latest comments sparked outrage among some officials and lawmakers in Europe, in particular Denmark, Greenland's former colonial ruler that still governs foreign and security policy on the island and is a close U.S. ally.

On Wednesday, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the idea about Greenland wasn't a good one.

"But maybe more importantly, it's obviously one that's not going to happen. So we probably shouldn't waste a lot of time talking about it," Blinken said during a visit to Paris.

Control over Greenland and the broader Arctic is valuable for projecting power, monitoring activities of rivals and securing shipping routes, analysts and officials said.