President Donald Trump has reiterated his need to purchase Greenland, and refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to attain his aim of controlling the autonomous territory of Denmark. .
Nonetheless, america is not the one nation with a watch on the area. In 2018, a Chinese language state-owned firm bid roughly $550 million to develop two airports in Greenland, however the bid was finally withdrawn.
In the meantime, Russia has been reopening outdated Soviet army bases throughout the Arctic since 2015, together with Nagurskoye, situated simply 600 miles off the northern coast of Greenland.
“Greenland is nearly a sort of floor zero for the way the Arctic has turn into increasingly geopolitically and strategically important,” in response to Kalus Dodds, a professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway, College of London.
As China and Russia develop their affect within the Arctic, Greenland’s location has turn into very important to America’s ballistic missile warning system.
“With China’s rise and its tripling the dimensions of its ICBM ballistic missile arsenal, Greenland performs a nationwide protection position due to its geography,” mentioned Brent Sadler, a senior analysis fellow on the Heritage Basis.
Greenland’s location additionally presents a singular financial alternative, because of its proximity to Arctic transport routes. Delivery over Arctic routes noticed a 37% enhance between 2013 and 2023, in response to the Arctic Council.
In 2018, China additionally introduced its intent to assemble a “Polar Silk Road” linking China and Europe by the Arctic Ocean.
“Because the Arctic ice stream has modified within the latest previous, and is projected to proceed altering, opening up Arctic transport routes, you’ve got a number of profitable potentials there,” mentioned Sadler.
Watch the video above to search out out why Greenland is so vital in gepolitics.
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