"US President Donald Trump says it's "unacceptable" that Greenland should not come under US control and has threatened tariffs on any countries who don't fall in line with his plans. While the territory is geographically in North America, its relationship with Denmark means it is culturally and politically European. Meanwhile, citizens and the governments of Denmark and Greenland are doing their best to resist Trump's overtures while Europe, China and Russia assess the importance of the vast, icy island to their interests."
"While the latest threats of buying or invading Greenland are particular to Donald Trump's administration, the Danish territory has been key to US interests for much longer than that. Then US Secretary of State William Seward raised the idea of annexing Greenland as far back as 1867 and the US occupied Greenland to ensure it didn't fall into the hands of Nazi Germany during World War II."
"The US currently operates the remote Pituffik Space Base, an air force base, in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the US and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. The island's position off the northeastern coast of Canada means many north American leaders have deemed it crucial to defense strategy. Russia, another country which lies partly in the Arctic Circle"
Greenland occupies a strategic position in the Arctic that attracts attention from the United States, Europe, Russia, and China. The United States has long viewed Greenland as important, from 19th-century annexation ideas to occupation in World War II and construction of the Pituffik air base under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Treaty. The territory is geographically in North America but politically linked to Denmark, giving it European ties. Greenland's size — roughly 2.17 million sq km, about six times larger than Germany — and its location off northeastern Canada make it central to Arctic defense and great-power competition.
Read at www.dw.com
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