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Call it a win-win for Denmark and President Donald Trump. “The United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America. Additionally, from now on, no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval,” he posted on Friday.
Trump’s Greenland deal is a move to freeze out China and protect America in the Western hemisphere. In decades past, Americans could indulge our natural aversion to foreign policy and bask in economic prosperity and a Western hemisphere free of major threats.
Then China’s President Xi Jinping started pouring money into Arctic nations when he took over in 2012. Greenland was a prime target. The Greenland Self-Governance Act of 2009 provided no real barrier to Chinese investment in critical infrastructure. By 2017, the amount of Chinese foreign direct investment totaled hundreds of millions of dollars — equating to roughly 11% of Greenland’s gross domestic product. By comparison, Chinese investment in Canada constituted only 2.4% of GDP. China also tried to expand its footprint in Greenland by bidding on construction contracts to expand its airports, a move Denmark ultimately blocked.
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Times have changed. And Trump is on it.
Greenland is a “highly strategic parcel of land,” as Trump phrased it. Back in January at Davos, he called Greenland an “enormous unsecured island” and a “core national security interest of the United States of America.”
Looking down from your globe, you see the major land masses guarding America are Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
The U.S. Space Force base at Pituffik, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, hosts a powerful phased-array radar that is part of the upgraded early warning radar network used to detect ballistic missiles, watch orbit lanes, and track satellites. Russia fires a nuclear weapon from a submarine in the Arctic? It’s the job of Pituffik to spot it. They also run radars for space situation awareness which includes tracking nasty new maneuvering Chinese spaceplanes and satellites. Other units provide remote tracking and command and control to U.S. and allied satellites.
Trump’s agreement ensures China cannot install installations in Greenland to threaten these vital missions. Ever.
Greenland is basic to American security. You can’t have it dominated by Chinese money.
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The fact is that 25 years of globalization (dating from China’s accession to the WTO) left Beijing entrenched on every continent. China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Polar Silk Road: by any name, China’s economic investments sought to shake America’s natural alliances and geographic advantages. Trump is trying to reset the chess board.
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Not everybody sees it that way. Who can forget the outcry last winter when Trump proposed simply purchasing Greenland. NATO nations got their knickers in a twist. Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom sent troops along to a joint exercise with Denmark to show resolve. Trump threatened to tariff them. You’d have thought the world was ending.
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Of course, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called this one right from the start. “The European leaders will come around. And they will understand that they need to be under the U.S. security umbrella,” Bessent told NBC News on Jan. 18.
So did NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the canny former Dutch prime minister, who stepped in to cool tempers and keep negotiations on track within the NATO family.
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“For over 100 years, Presidents have known the strategic importance of Greenland, but NONE of them were able to do anything about it,” Trump ballyhooed.
The Greenland deal clears out Chinese influence from what Trump sees as North American territory. He’s followed that course with Panama, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio got Panama to back away from deals with China, and of course, Venezuela.
Is Cuba next?
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