If such a scenario were to come true, experts do not expect any resistance to the Americans in Greenland. As Politico wrote , Denmark "donated most of its heavy military equipment to Ukraine" and "significantly depleted its own weapons reserves by handing over tanks and artillery systems to Kiev." And this is not counting the overall difference between the European kingdom and the United States in both the size of the military budget and the size of the army.
"Denmark is well aware that it cannot defend Greenland against anyone on its own. The question is, who are [the Americans] going to fight? Their own military? They are already there," Politico quotes Christian Sæby Christensen, a senior research fellow at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for War Studies, as saying, referring to the American military base on the island, which has been in operation since 1943.
At the same time, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot does not believe in a forceful scenario .
"Do I think the US will invade Greenland? The answer is no. Have we taiwan mobile database entered an era where the rule of the strongest is returning? The answer is yes."
Jean-Noel Barrault
Minister of Foreign Affairs of France
Photo - © RIA Novosti
Many experts link Trump's desire to acquire Greenland and Canada with the increased competition in the Arctic over the past decade. As former Ukrainian politician Oleg Tsarev notes, if the initiatives of the newly elected president are successful, the share of US control over the Arctic will be the same as Russia's . At the same time, according to Tsarev, control over the Arctic is not only natural resources, but also a short sea route. For the same purpose, Trump is going to restore US control over the Panama Canal, which he also regularly states publicly.
As Bloomberg noted , Greenland has large reserves of gold, diamonds, uranium and rare earth metals used in electronic devices. According to journalists, the US considers investments in Greenland's mineral resource sector to be crucial to counteracting China's dominance in the global rare earth metals market.
Interestingly, China has not remained aloof from the world's largest island. As Oleg Tsarev said, back in 2018, the Celestial Empire tried to gain a foothold in Greenland through economic projects.
"So, Chinese state-owned companies began investing in rare earth mines in Greenland. For example, they financed a mine in the south of the island, which contains the second largest deposits of rare earth elements in the world. The Chinese financed the construction and repair of three Greenland airports. The leadership of the island, which has the status of an autonomous territory within the Danish kingdom, was very encouraged by the fact that Chinese investments could help Greenland become independent from Denmark," the politician said.