Why Trump wants Greenland and what makes it so important for security

U.S. President Donald Trump is fixated on taking control of Greenland, a vast, sparsely populated and mineral-rich island situated between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean.

“It’s so strategic,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday. “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”

His comments, which came hot on the heels of an audacious military operation in Venezuela, sounded the alarm across Europe, with Denmark warning that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of the NATO military alliance.

The U.S. president, however, is yet to waver. Indeed, the White House ramped up transatlantic tensions even further on Tuesday, saying that Trump and his team are considering “a range of options” to make the self-governing Danish territory a part of the United States — including “utilizing the U.S. Military.”

Positioned between the U.S. and Russia, Greenland has long been viewed as an area of high strategic importance, particularly when it comes to Arctic security.

The territory of nearly 57,000 people is in close proximity to emerging Arctic shipping routes, with the rapid melting of ice creating opportunities to substantially reduce Asia-Europe travel time when compared to the Suez Canal.

Greenland also sits astride the so-called GIUK gap, a naval choke point between Greenland, Iceland and the U.K. that links the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.

Alongside its strategic geopolitical position, Greenland is known for an abundance of untapped raw materials, from oil and gas reserves to critical mineral deposits and a treasure trove of rare earth elements.

These critical minerals and rare earth elements are vital components in emerging technologies, such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, energy storage technologies, and national security applications. China repeatedly sought to leverage its near monopoly of rare earths to exert pressure on the U.S. last year.

“Trump is a real estate guy,” Clayton Allen, head of practice at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, told CNBC by video call.

“Greenland is sitting on some of the most valuable real estate in terms of economic advantage and strategic defense for the next three to five decades.”

To be sure, the U.S. already has a presence in Greenland. The Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, is located in the northwest of Greenland, just across the Baffin Bay from Nunavut, Canada.

It is estimated that around 150 U.S. service members are permanently stationed there, down from around 6,000 during the Cold War era.

“For good reasons, the U.S. has an early warning air base in northwestern Greenland because the shortest route for a Russian ballistic missile to reach the continental United States is via Greenland and the North Pole,” said Otto Svendsen, associate fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (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, has traditionally been pivotal to the monitoring of Russian submarines traversing the GIUK gap, 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 Sea Route,” Svendsen told CNBC by telephone.

“And as climate change continues to render those routes more viable, there are commercial interests there as well that add to the national security value of the island,” he added.

Opinion polls have previously shown that Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose U.S. control, while a strong majority support independence from Denmark.

Analysts say that Greenland could prove useful to the U.S. 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 multibillion-dollar initiative, rolled out in May last year and often compared to Israel’s “Iron Dome” system, is a visionary plan designed to shield the U.S. from all missile attacks.

“The U.S. needs access to the Arctic and it doesn’t really have that much direct access today. Greenland has a tremendous amount. The U.S. needs air defenses deployed closer and closer to Russia to combat next generation weapons that are not currently defensible with what we have available. Greenland provides that,” Eurasia Group’s Allen said.

“Trump wants to build a ‘Golden Dome’ over the U.S.,” he continued. “Part of that is going to have to depend on Greenland.”

For some, Trump’s assertion that annexing Greenland is a core part of U.S. national security has raised eyebrows. The declaration marks a notable shift in tone from almost a year ago, when the then president-elect cited “economic security” as a primary factor for annexing the island.

Marion Messmer, director of the International Security Programme at London’s Chatham House think tank, acknowledged that it is true to say that both Russia and China have increased their military activities in the Arctic in recent years — and, if Moscow launched missiles at the U.S., they would likely fly over Greenland.

“However, what is not clear is why Washington needs full control over Greenland to defend itself,” Messmer said in a written analysis published Tuesday.

She cited the fact that the U.S. already has a presence at Pituffik Space Base, as well as a decades-old defense agreement with Denmark that allows Washington to continue to use it.

“During the Cold War, the US stationed up to 6,000 troops across a range of camps across the island,” Messmer said. “It could presumably surge troop presence again if it felt it needed a greater presence in the region – without disputing Danish sovereignty.”