NEW YORK, March 27. /TASS/. If the United States acquires Greenland, it will be able to use the island to monitor the activities of Russia and China in the Arctic, Bloomberg news agency reported.
"Gaining control over Greenland could give the US government new opportunities to expand its air and naval presence in the Arctic and step up monitoring of Chinese and Russian activity there," it said. Greenland is already home to the US’ northernmost air base and a radar station used for detecting missile threats and monitoring space.
Greenland is a region whose vast stores of critical minerals and fossil fuels are coveted by the US and its strategic rivals China and Russia. The accelerated melting of Greenland’s ice sheet due to climate change potentially makes those deposits more accessible, while also opening up shorter shipping routes for trade between North America, Europe and Asia.
On March 13, US President Donald Trump said that the United States would annex Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark. Prior to that, he said that he would listen to the people of Greenland, and make a decision based on that. The American leader has repeatedly said that Greenland should become a part of the United States. He threatened to impose high trade duties on Denmark if it did not give up the island. Even during his first term, Trump offered to buy Greenland. Denmark and Greenland rejected the idea.
In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to their allied commitments to NATO, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty. Under it, the United States has committed to defending the island from aggression. It houses the American Pituffik space base, which warns of a missile attack and controls the Arctic zone.