Why does Trump want to annex Greenland?

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00August 2019, Donald Trump first raised the prospects of purchasing Greenland off Denmark.

00:08Essentially, it's a large real estate deal. A lot of things could be done. It's hurting

00:14Denmark very badly because they're losing almost $700 million a year carrying it. So they carry it

00:21at a great loss. And strategically for the United States, it would be nice. It wasn't

00:27the first time the U.S. tried to buy the territory. Washington initially floated the idea in 1867

00:33and in 1946 made its first real offer, a $100 million bid, which was promptly rejected by

00:41Denmark. Since then, the U.S. has continued to see Greenland as vital to its strategic interests,

00:48partly because of its vast and largely untapped underground riches. The territory's soil is

00:53thought to contain some 36 billion tons of rare earth minerals, such as graphite and lithium,

00:59vital components for emerging technologies, on which China currently has a near monopoly.

01:05Greenland also holds vast oil reserves, amounting to nearly 29 billion barrels of crude,

01:11as many valuable resources that have so far widely remained untouched.

01:16Doing mining in Greenland is expensive because you don't have the infrastructure. We'll have to

01:21build a harbor. You also have to build a road from the harbor up to your mine before you can start

01:26mining. It's very energy-consuming. It's very nasty, polluting, and very complex processing mechanism.

01:36The U.S. also sees Greenland's strategic position as crucial to its national security.

01:41The territory straddles several major shipping routes that are becoming increasingly valuable

01:47as the polar cap continues to melt, an area over which Washington is keen to exercise greater control

01:53in order to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence near its own shores.

01:59Greenland also sits along the shortest route for Russian ballistic missiles to reach the United States,

02:05an ideal location to deploy Trump's Golden Dome air defense system.

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