Trump seeks Greenland due to its strategic location on several maps

US President Donald Trump is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where discussions about Greenland’s future will take place. The issue of acquiring Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, has sparked tensions between the US and other countries.

Trump stated that Greenland is “imperative for national and world security” during a White House media briefing on Tuesday to mark one year since his second-term inauguration. He warned several European nations, including the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland, of potential tariffs on goods from February 1, rising to 25 percent by June, unless they support his proposed takeover of Greenland.

Greenland is located in the Arctic Circle, mostly within the region between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. It is part of North America, northeast of Canada and west of Iceland, but it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. The island’s population lives along its coastline due to the largely uninhabitable interior.

The capital city, Nuuk, is home to about one-third of Greenland’s roughly 56,000 residents. Eight countries, including Canada, Finland, and Russia, have land within the Arctic Circle. Some of these countries are geographically close, with distances between them being relatively small.

Greenland covers an area of approximately 2.17 million square kilometers (836,330 square miles), making it roughly three times the size of the US state of Texas or about the same size as Saudi Arabia and Mexico combined. The Arctic region has seen an increase in shipping activity, with data showing a 37 percent rise in ships operating in the area between 2013 and 2023.

The Pituffik Space Base is one of the main permanent US bases on Greenland.

Source: Al Jazeera