What happened to Donald Trump’s idea of ​​buying Greenland?

In August 2019, then-US President Donald Trump was all eyes Greenland when, a few days before an official visit to Denmark, he let slip his intention to buy the island.

This alleged offer has stirred spirits in both Nuuk and Copenhagen.

Although in Greenland there are too many interests at stake as to a Trump explosion to sever relations between the United States and Denmark, NATO partners and members of the Arctic Council.

This week, the United States Secretary of State, Antony blink, clarified that the idea of ​​buying Greenland is definitely buried.

Blinken visited the autonomous Danish territory on Thursday on the last day of an official trip with stops also in Copenhagen and Iceland, where an Arctic Council meeting was held.

“I can confirm that is correct,” said Blinken, when asked by a reporter, if the United States had definitively abandoned the plan to buy the island.

Accompanied by the newly elected Regional President of Greenland, Múte B. Egede, and the Danish Foreign Minister, Jeppe Kofod, Blinken expressed the wish to closer cooperation with the Nuuk government.

Impor “I am in Greenland because the United States attaches great importance to our cooperation and wants to strengthen it even more,” he told a press conference.

Strategic importance

His growth geostrategic, economic and military importance transformed Greenland into a major game board that the world’s great powers vie for control.

Last year, the United States took a relevant step in this game by reopening a consulate in the Greenlandic capital and agree with the regional government on an economic aid plan of more than 12 million dollars for civilian projects related to the extraction of raw materials, tourism and education.

Then, the announcement of this investment fueled the tensions with Russia, who accused the Donald Trump administration of endangering the peace in the Arctic.

the Moscow wrath was prompted by the words of then-US Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, who said the movement’s aim was to ensure stability in the region and counter “aggressive behavior and increasing militarization “of Russia, as well as the” interests of economic predators “of China in the Arctic.

This argument summed up the “cold war” that the three countries of Greenland have been waging in recent years, gaining geopolitical power as global warming accelerates the melting of the poles.

This facilitates the opening of maritime routes and access to huge unexploited deposits of the island, especially those of rare earth, a group of 17 elements crucial for the development of green energy, electronic products and military weapons.

During this week’s visit, Blinken made no reference to the military, although the United States has owned Thule Air Base since WWII, and was also very vague on future economic deals. .

“We would like to find a way to further strengthen the trade relationship,” said Blinken.

Connect with Joe Biden

Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte B. Egede was optimistic and “convinced that this decade will be the beginning of a new era ”in relations with the United States.

Island Foreign Minister Pele Broberg spoke of diplomatic tensions following Trump’s statements in 2019 and pointed to the change in mood of the new administration Joe Biden, ensuring that Blinken’s visit “n ‘is not considered a real estate business’.

“A real estate contract means that you are negotiating land with nothing and no one. Secretary Blinken has made it clear that he is here for the people who live in the Arctic, for the people who live in Greenland, ”he added.

Egede and Broberg took office just a month and a half ago, following early elections in this island, the largest in the world but with only 56,000 inhabitants, mainly Aboriginal Inuit.

The elections gave victory to the pro-independence and environmentalist Inuit Ataqatigiit party and left the social democrat Siumut in opposition after having led all but one government since Greenland gained autonomy in 1979.

La Vanguardia, special

CB