Trump has shocked Europe with his bold and unrelenting desire to seize Greenland as a US territory. Still, it should come as an even greater shock how little Europe had paid attention to this crucial landmass in the stage of newly emerging global conflicts.
The Arctic has not weighed heavily in international relationships. However, with the ice melting, new trade routes are opening, and rich resources are becoming more easily accessible. In 2007, Russia planted a flag on the Arctic seafloor, claiming a vast territory for itself. A race for dominance in the far north has started, with the EU lagging far behind.
The grass is always greener on the other side, especially if that other side is called Greenland. The question is not why Trump wants to have it, but why the EU ignored this vast and important island up until now.
It seems Trump is serious about his intent to make America greater by getting Greenland. Danish politicians are understandably not so keen. However, Trump is right about the island’s strategic importance in the competition for the Arctic, long ignored by Danish and EU politicians.
The few inhabitants of Greenland want complete autonomy, which is unlikely to happen and would be catastrophic for Western interests. China is already courting the people there, for which the CCP gained a lot of influence in the mining industry of the island. Since then, the influence lessened but China, the largest miner of rare earth finds Greenland’s rare earth deposits threatening, and wants to take action over it.
Ever since Trump raised interest in the island, where there is already a US military presence, Denmark admitted it had overlooked the strategic importance of its territory, something it aims to remedy. The top military officer of the EU also signaled interest in putting EU soldiers there.
Did it really take an American politician to shake up the EU from its torpor? Trump managed to spur Europe to action even before he took office. Maybe that was the plan all along? Not to get Greenland for the US, but to get the people responsible for its defense, which is also in the interest of the US, to start actually taking action to assert dominance over their own territory?
The EU should do better. Rather than reacting to prompts from the US, or too adversarial countries like China which are already far ahead in realizing their strategy goals against EU interests, Europe should wake up and drive policies towards its own policy goals. They must be clearly defined with the aim for the EU to assert itself on the international stage. Otherwise, the whole continent would be better off as an overseas territory of the US.
Continue exploring:
EU Response to Trump with Philippe Legrain [PODCAST]
Growing Influence of Russia And China in New European Parliament?