President Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to buy Greenland and refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to achieve his goal of gaining control of the autonomous territory of Denmark. .
However, the United States is not the only country eyeing the region. In 2018, a Chinese state-owned company offered around $550 million to expand two airports in Greenland, but the offer was ultimately withdrawn.
Meanwhile, since 2015, Russia has reopened old Soviet military bases across the Arctic, including Nagurskoye, just 600 miles off the northern coast of Greenland.
“Greenland is almost a kind of ground zero for how the Arctic has become increasingly geopolitical and strategic,” said Kalus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway University of London.
As China and Russia expand their influence in the Arctic, Greenland's location is critical to the U.S. ballistic missile warning system.
“As China rises and triples the size of its ICBM ballistic missile arsenal, Greenland plays a national defense role because of its geography,” said Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Greenland's location also offers a unique economic opportunity thanks to its proximity to Arctic shipping routes. According to the Arctic Council, shipping via Arctic routes increased by 37% between 2013 and 2023.
In 2018, China also announced its intention to build a “Polar Silk Road” connecting China and Europe through the Arctic Ocean.
“As ice flow in the Arctic has changed in the recent past and is expected to continue to change, opening shipping routes in the Arctic, there are several lucrative potentials there,” Sadler said.
Watch them video Above you will find out why Greenland is so important in geopolitics.
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