Why President Trump Wants Greenland and What Is So Important to Our Security?

US President Donald Trump is obsessed with controlling Greenland, a vast, sparsely populated, mineral-rich island located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean.

“This is very strategic,” President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “Currently, Greenland is filled with Russian and Chinese ships. We need Greenland from a national security perspective.”

His comments, which came on the heels of a bold military operation in Venezuela, set off alarms across Europe, with Denmark warning that the US occupation of Greenland would mean the end of the NATO military alliance.

But the US president is still unwavering. Indeed, the White House further ratcheted up transatlantic tensions on Tuesday, saying Trump and his team were considering “a range of options” including “the use of the U.S. military” to make the autonomous Danish territory part of the United States.

Greenland, located between the United States and Russia, has been considered a region of great strategic importance, especially with regard to Arctic security.

The territory, with a population of approximately 57,000 people, is located in close proximity to the emerging Northern Sea Route, where rapid melting of ice creates the opportunity to significantly reduce travel times between Asia and Europe compared to the Suez Canal.

Greenland also straddles the so-called GIUK Gap, a maritime chokepoint between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom that connects the North Pole and the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to its strategic geopolitical location, Greenland is known for its wealth of untapped raw materials, from oil and gas reserves to important mineral deposits and treasure troves of rare earth elements.

These critical minerals and rare earth elements are essential elements in emerging technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, energy storage technologies, and national security applications. China made repeated attempts last year to use its near-monopoly in rare earths to pressure the United States.

“Trump is a real estate agent,” Clayton Allen, practice director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC in a video call.

“Greenland has some of the most valuable real estate in terms of economic advantage and strategic defense for the next 30 to 50 years.”

Indeed, the United States already has a presence in Greenland. Pitafik Space Station (formerly Thule Air Base) is located in northwestern Greenland, just across Baffin Bay from Nunavut, Canada.

It is estimated that about 150 U.S. military personnel are permanently stationed there, down from about 6,000 during the Cold War.

“There’s a good reason why the United States has an early warning air base in northwestern Greenland, because the shortest route for Russian ballistic missiles to reach the continental United States is through Greenland and the North Pole,” said Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

Svendsen said the base also has an airfield, the world’s northernmost deep-water port and has traditionally played a vital role in monitoring Russian submarines sailing through the GIUK gap.

“More recently, a new threat or factor is the fact that Greenland straddles two potential shipping routes through the Arctic: the Northwest Passage and the Transpolar Passage,” Svendsen told CNBC by phone.

“And as climate change continues to increase the viability of these routes, there are also commercial interests there that enhance the national security value of the island,” he added.

Previous polls have shown that while an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose U.S. rule, an overwhelming majority support independence from Denmark.

Analysts say Greenland could prove useful to the United States as a staging area to strengthen its defense presence and as a base for American missile interceptors, especially in the context of the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, one of the Trump administration’s key policies.

The multibillion-dollar initiative, rolled out last May and often compared to Israel’s “Iron Dome” system, is a visionary plan aimed at protecting the United States from any missile attack.

“The United States needs access to the Arctic, and we don’t currently have that much direct access. Greenland has a huge amount. The United States needs air defenses deployed increasingly closer to Russia to counter next-generation weapons that cannot be defended against by the weapons currently available. Greenland provides that,” said Eurasia Group’s Allen.

“Trump wants to build a ‘Golden Dome’ over the United States,” he continued. “Part of that will depend on Greenland.”

Some have raised eyebrows at President Trump’s assertion that the annexation of Greenland is central to U.S. national security. The declaration marks a marked change in tone from nearly a year ago, when the then-president-elect cited “economic security” as a key factor in annexing the island.

Marion Messmer, director of the International Security Program at Chatham House think tank in London, acknowledged that it is true that both Russia and China have increased military activity in the Arctic in recent years. And if Russia were to fire a missile at the United States, it would likely fly over Greenland.

“What is not clear, however, is why Washington needs full control of Greenland to protect itself,” Messmer said in a written analysis published Tuesday.

He cited the fact that the United States already has a presence at the Pitufik Cosmodrome, and a decades-old defense agreement with Denmark that allows the U.S. government to continue using the base.

“During the Cold War, the United States stationed up to 6,000 troops in various camps on the island,” Messmer said. “If we feel it is necessary to increase our military presence in the region, we could probably increase our military presence again without contesting Denmark’s sovereignty.”