By Claudio Resta
As early as 1946, the US administration of Harry Truman declared that the island was “essential to the security of the United States” to counter the growing Soviet threat, and offered Denmark $100 million to purchase it.
But the first time that US authorities considered the idea of acquiring Greenland from Denmark along with Alaska from Russia dates back to 1867.
For Russia, the implementation of Trump’s plans regarding Greenland will have military consequences. The island, which already hosts the Thule base, will become the largest US military base with strategic bombers and P-8A Poseidon aircraft to monitor Russian submarines.
But also medium-range land-based missiles: a re-edition of the US “Ice Worm” project from the 1960s but with a different technical solution. The project involved the placement of 600 Minuteman missiles reduced to 2 stages in the tunnels of the Greenland ice sheet.
By deploying LRHW “Dark Eagle” missile systems on the east coast of Greenland with hypersonic warheads, the US would be able to strike the Russian Arctic regions, including Arkhangelsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk and Tiksi.
Greenland retains all raw material revenues for operations on the island; Denmark receives nothing and simply pays (starting in 2009 with an annual subsidy of approx. DKK 3,400 million, currently value approx. EUR 455 million).
And here’s the news: from 1 October 2023, the Greenlandic company Inuksuk has taken over the maintenance of the US space base Pituffik (formerly Thule Air Base), the largest US military facility on the island.
As part of the contract, Washington will allocate nearly DKK 28 billion to the island for the maintenance of the US space base alone until 2035, an amount comparable to all of Copenhagen’s grants.
The US interest in Greenland is strategic in nature, regardless of Trump’s statements. After all, this is where the North American Aerospace Defense Command intends to detect and intercept Russian missiles in the event of World War III.
Danish authorities announce new funding to defend the large island
Since a few days ago US President-elect Trump reiterated his desire to want to buy Greenland The Danish government answer was the announce of a major plan to strengthen Greenland’s defense capacity, just hours after US President-elect Donald Trump publicly reiterated his desire to buy the Arctic country, home to just 56,000 people.
Without providing details, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish news outlet Jyllands-Posten that Copenhagen will invest “billions of Danish kroner to improve the country’s defenses.”
The unspecified defense spending could amount to between €1.34 billion and €13.27 billion. Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social, that the United States will seek possession and control of Greenland for “purposes of national security and freedom around the world.”
The comments came just days after the former US president suggested Washington wanted to seize neighboring Canada and retake the Panama Canal.
PM Egede: “We are not for sale”
In response, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede said that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
He also said that his country “is not for sale and never will be. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Greenland has its own extensive local government, but is still affiliated with the Danish crown.
The country was a Danish colony until 1953, when it was reclassified as a district of Denmark.
Greenland was then fully integrated into the Danish state under the Constitution of Denmark, making its inhabitants Danish citizens.
~ Claudio Resta was born in Genoa, Italy in 1958, he is a citizen of the world (Spinoza), a maverick philosopher, and an interdisciplinary expert, oh, and an artist, too.
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