Donald Trump, the president of the United States, made it clear to other world leaders on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, that he was unflinching about requesting the US to buy Greenland, even saying for the first time that he had no intention of imposing a force on the country.
Trump cited Greenland’s strategic alliance with the US, Russia, and China as the primary justification for his desire to acquire the territory.
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Trump reiterates how the United States and Greenland and Denmark historically connected, saying that during World War II, “we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining foothold in our hemisphere.”
This is accurate to say that the US established a military presence on the island, though with a smaller scope, after Germany invaded Denmark and assumed responsibility for its defense.
Trump, however, made an error by remarking that “we gave Greenland back to Denmark after World War II.”
He claimed that all the US is asking for is a place called Greenland, where it was already used as a trustee and which respectfully turned it over to Denmark a few years ago.
Although the US defended Greenland during World War II, it was unable to reclaim the country’s possession. Greenland’s status as a member of Denmark is unquestionable, according to experts who have spoken to PolitiFact.
The Danish colonization of Greenland began in the 1720s. A global court in 1933 resolved Denmark and Norway’s territorial dispute, declaring that as of July 1931, Denmark “possessed a valid title to the sovereignty over all Greenland.”
The United Nations Charter, which was the organization’s founding document and the foundation of a lot of international law, was approved by Denmark in 1945, which gave it representation in the Danish Parliament in 1953. The UN General Assembly accepted Denmark’s request to end any colonial-type status in November 1954. The US voted to accept Greenland’s new status, along with other countries.
Greenland has since progressively but consistently gotten more autonomy.
In 1979, Greenlandic political activists successfully advocated for and won home rule, which established its parliament. Greenland is a district in Denmark’s current state, and its parliament has two elected representatives.
How about Iceland?
Trump mentioned Iceland four times in his Davos speech, leaving Greenland out.
Trump claimed that Iceland caused the first decline in the stock market yesterday. Iceland has already cost us a lot of money, but we still have an incredible future because of that, even though it has already increased.
Trump’s Greenland remarks the day before his Davos speech caused a negative impact on US stocks, which dropped by about 2%.
Trump hasn’t said anything about acquiring Iceland, a self-governing island nation with nearly 400,000 residents east of Greenland, in recent weeks, though.
The White House press secretary criticized a reporter for repeatedly posting that Trump “appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland” in an X post following his Davos speech. According to Karolina Leavitt, Trump’s “written remarks referred to Greenland as a “piece of ice” because of how it is. Trump did refer to Greenland as a “very large piece of ice,” but he also separately mentioned “Iceland.”
Icelanders have traditionally had close ties to the US, beginning with World War II, when Reykjavik invited US troops into the nation. Iceland joined NATO in 1949, and the two nations formally merged in 1951 under the umbrella of a bilateral defense agreement.
Iceland, despite having no standing military, is geographically significant for both North America and Europe because of its strategic location, between the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans, which serves as a strategic naval choke point in the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom conflict.
The US temporarily ceased operations at Keflavk airbase in 2006 after a 45-minute drive south of Reykjavik, where it was previously a permanent base. Important NATO tasks include submarine surveillance, operations at four radar sites on the island, and civilians in Iceland. Additionally, Iceland contributes a small amount of technical and diplomatic personnel to NATO operations. It also contributes financially to NATO trust funds.
Former Republican Congressman Billy Long, Trump’s choice for Iceland’s ambassador, received criticism earlier this month after being overheard saying Iceland should become a US state after Greenland and that he would serve as governor.
Long apologized in an interview with Arctic Today.
Nothing about that was particularly significant. When I met some people who I hadn’t spoken to in three years, they joked that Jeff Landry was Greenland’s governor, and they started laughing at me. And I apologize if anyone makes an offensive comment,” Long told the magazine. Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, has been appointed as the US ambassador to Greenland by Trump.
The University of Iceland’s Silja Bara R. Omarsdottir, an international affairs professor who is currently the University of Iceland’s rector or president, reported to the Tampa Bay Times in August that political concern about the country’s security, including concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the rest of Europe, is “definitely very noticeable at the political level.”
The key to surviving the Trump era was to stay out of sight, according to several Icelandic analysts, who were only partially correct in saying that for whatever reason, Greenland was unlucky enough to not be able to do so.
Source: Aljazeera
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