The United States is trying to take Greenland from Denmark in order to “eliminate the Russian threat”: why does Washington need this and how will Europe respond?

Donald Trump promised to make the island part of the United States in his first term

Since the beginning of 2026, the need to annex Greenland from Denmark and incorporate it into the United States has become one of the key narratives of the White House. This is supposedly necessary to prevent Russian and Chinese threats to America.

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“NATO has been telling Denmark for 20 years that you must eliminate the Russian threat from Greenland. Unfortunately Denmark was unable to do anything about this. Now is the time and it will be done!” President Donald Trump tweeted on January 19.

A few days earlier, Republican member of the US House of Representatives Randy Fine introduced a bill in Congress that would annex Greenland and grant it statehood. At the same time, the White House instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prepare a formal proposal to purchase the island for $700 billion.

In response, European NATO countries sent a symbolic military contingent to Greenland - several dozen troops. After this, Donald Trump announced the introduction of 10% tariffs from February 1 against European countries that sent troops to Greenland. From June 1, duties should increase to 25%. The EU will in the coming days discuss the introduction of counter-duties against the United States and limiting the access of American companies to the European market. It also became known that after Trump’s announcement about the tariffs, German soldiers left the island.

Trump is far from the first to say that Greenland should become part of the United States. This topic has been discussed since the 19th century. However, Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom and Copenhagen excludes the possibility of any territorial concessions.

“Layout” tells how territorial disputes arose regarding the largest island in the world, what Trump sees as a “Russian threat” and why, for the sake of an ice-covered land with a population of 50 thousand, America is ready to go into conflict with European NATO allies.

Embarrassing questions about Greenland - where is it, how big is it and who lives there?

Greenland is located in the Arctic between North America and Europe. This is the largest island in the world, its area is about 2.2 million square meters. kilometers. This is comparable to the area of ​​the Krasnoyarsk Territory or twenty-six Tver regions.

81% of the island's territory is covered with ice, and its population is only 56 thousand people, making it the most sparsely populated area on the planet. Almost 90% of the inhabitants are Inuit, who settled there in the 13th-14th centuries.

The island was first settled by Scandinavians in the 10th century, but European settlers disappeared no later than the 15th century. 300 years later, in the 18th century, Denmark again colonized Greenland and now the island has autonomous status within the Danish kingdom.

Denmark is responsible for the defense of the autonomy; as part of the kingdom, the island is part of NATO. However, it is not part of the European Union - Greenland left its predecessor, the European Economic Community, back in 1985, after a referendum. Since the island's inhabitants mainly live from fishing, they did not like the transfer of control over this area to Brussels.

What is GIUK and why is Greenland strategically important?

Now Greenland is a subsidized region and receives significant subsidies from the Danish budget. However, in recent years, interest in local natural resources has been growing around the world.

It is estimated that Greenland ranks approximately eighth in the world in terms of reserves of rare earth metals , and with further exploration it may become second only to China. In addition, the island has deposits of iron ore, lead, zinc, diamonds, gold, copper and uranium. It is also believed that there are significant reserves of oil and gas under the ice.

But most of the resources are located in hard-to-reach areas beyond the Arctic Circle, under a kilometer-long layer of ice. Their extraction may be easier in the future, but right now it is unprofitable. On the entire island, only two mines are currently operating - one mines gold, the other mines the rock mineral anorthosite for the production of mineral wool.

Therefore, the main strategic importance of the island lies not in its resources, but in its geographical location. Greenland is located between the USA and Europe. For Russian submarines based on the Kola Peninsula, the shortest route to the shores of the United States lies through the Atlantic zone between Greenland, Iceland and Great Britain. In NATO terminology it is called the GIUK gap: Greenland—Iceland—United Kingdom. It was there that the main line of US anti-submarine defense was created after World War II.

In the event of a nuclear war, a significant part of Russian ballistic missiles aimed at cities on the Atlantic coast of the United States will fly over Greenland in a “great arc”. Therefore, since the Second World War, there have been American military bases on the island. One of them was built under the ice and powered by a nuclear reactor - the designers did not take into account that glaciers are mobile, the base was abandoned. In addition, in 1968, the US military lost a hydrogen bomb on the island; it has not yet been found.

Near Greenland there are sea routes and submarine cables connecting Atlantic countries. All of this makes Greenland a key point for controlling access to the North Atlantic, both from a trade and security perspective. With the melting of the ice, routes through the Arctic - strategically important for China and Russia - may be added to this.

What did Donald Trump say about Greenland and when did he want to annex it to the United States?

Donald Trump first talked about annexing Greenland to America in 2019, during his first term as president. The president said the United States is willing to buy the island, citing its resource reserves and strategic location.

After Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the sale idea “absurd,” Trump canceled his visit to Denmark. In 2020, the United States opened a consulate on the island for the first time since 1953.

In December 2024, Trump, as president-elect, returned to this topic again. “In order to ensure national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America feels that it absolutely needs Greenland,” he wrote on his social network.

He later said that Denmark should give up control of Greenland under the threat of higher tariffs. And he suggested that the inhabitants of the island could vote for independence or for joining the United States. “I think we’ll get it,” Trump told reporters on January 25, 2025, shortly after his inauguration.

He kept the theme front and center throughout his first year in office and stepped up calls for the capture of Greenland after the recent US military raid on Venezuela . The White House said a number of options were being discussed, including "the use of the U.S. military."

What do Denmark and NATO say about the transfer of Greenland to the United States?

Denmark rejects the idea of ​​transferring Greenland to the United States. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said any US military intervention in Greenland would spell the end of NATO. Other allies emphasize Greenland's sovereignty and collective defense in the Arctic. The Greenlandic government also insists that decisions about the island's future lie between its people and Denmark.

The kingdom announced that the island's military had been given permission to use weapons if necessary, without waiting for further instructions. On January 17, tens of thousands of demonstrators protested against the United States in the Greenlandic capital of Nuuku and in Danish cities including Copenhagen. Slogans include “Greenland is not for sale” and “Hands off Greenland.” The march to Nuuku was led by the head of the government of the autonomy, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the son of a Dane and an Inuit woman.

The governments of seven NATO countries in Europe, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark, issued a joint statement “Greenland belongs to its people.” They promised to station military personnel there.

“No [NATO] member should attack or threaten another Alliance member. Otherwise, if conflicts or mutual contradictions arise within the union, NATO will lose its meaning,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

At the same time, Politico magazine claims that European countries may agree to expand the US role in Greenland in exchange for stronger security guarantees from Washington to Ukraine. The publication’s source called this scenario a package of measures “security in exchange for security.”

How the US tried to buy Greenland before

This is not the first time Washington has been interested in the island. In 1867, US Secretary of State William Seward considered purchasing Greenland and Iceland from Denmark, but no formal offer was made. This topic was also discussed in 1910.

In 1941, after the occupation of Denmark by Germany, the island was taken under external control by Washington. American politicians referred to the foreign policy Monroe Doctrine, which declared America a zone of exclusive US interests, and the Havana Act, which allowed it to take control of any European territory in America if they were “in danger of becoming the subject of an exchange or replacement of the sovereign.”

In 1946, US President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million for the province, but the deal was rejected. Nine years later, the US military proposed to President Eisenhower to “establish sovereignty” over the island.

According to NBC News sources, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been tasked with developing a proposal to buy Greenland for $700 billion. Republican U.S. House of Representatives member Randy Fine has introduced a bill in Congress that would annex Greenland into a U.S. state—a bill that now appears to have no chance of passing a vote.

On January 14, the White House posted a picture in X asking Greenland to choose between a path with the United States or Russia and China. “If we don't do it, Russia or China will,” Trump said.

Now his policy on this issue is supported by about 20% of Americans, 36% are not sure about the need to control the island or did not answer this question.

Photo: A tourist boat approaches the Greenland coast through an ice field. Science Photo Library via Reuters Connect

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