Greenland Isn't For Sale But It Is Increasingly Valuable

Faizan Hashmi Published August 17, 2019 | 12:22 PM

President Donald Trump's reported wish to buy Greenland may have been rejected by Denmark, but it underscores the rapidly rising value of the massive, ice-covered island due to global warming and to China's drive for an Arctic presence

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Aug, 2019 ) :President Donald Trump's reported wish to buy Greenland may have been rejected by Denmark, but it underscores the rapidly rising value of the massive, ice-covered island due to global warming and to China's drive for an Arctic presence.

The accelerating polar ice melt has left sparsely populated Greenland, a self-governing part of Denmark, astride what are potentially major shipping routes and in the crosshairs of intensifying geopolitical competition between superpowers.

It also has untapped natural resources like oil, minerals and valuable rare earth elements that China, the United States and other major tech economies covet.

A Chinese government-backed group's offer last year to build three new international airports on Greenland sparked alarms in Copenhagen and Washington.

The Chinese plan was finally nixed in exchange for Danish funding and a pledge of support from the Pentagon.

Trump's idea to buy Greenland, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, "is not a serious proposal," said Heather Conley, a specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

But, "The administration has awoken to the Arctic as a geostrategic issue," she said.