CARLA SANDS: What To Do About Greenland

Americans might wonder why President Donald Trump declares that America needs to control Greenland. They might think it sounds aggressive to talk about “taking” territory from a long-time ally, but let’s look at the facts.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is part of North America and sits strategically to the immediate northeast of the continental United States between the United States and Russia.

The United States military occupied Greenland during World War II, built most of the infrastructure, and remained until the end of the Cold War, making up about 25% of the inhabitants of the world’s largest island, now occupied by approximately 57,000 Greenlanders, Danes, and others.

The United States has maintained a base in northern Greenland since then that serves as an early warning radar system. Greenland will now be part of the hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of projects under the Trump administration’s Golden Dome initiative. The Golden Dome is intended to secure the U.S. Homeland, much like Israel’s Iron Dome, but for longer-range missile-type threats.

In 2019, while I served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, Trump told the Danish Prime Minister that Greenland was not secure and that Denmark needed to invest in Greenland‘s security. The Danish Prime Minister committed to investing $200 million in Greenland security, but she didn’t keep her word, and Denmark did not invest in Greenland security.

When I would visit Greenland, there were about 30 Danish Joint Arctic Command Officers and two dog sledge teams to secure the entire island, one-third the size of the continental U.S. Denmark had very rudimentary localized awareness of threats on, above, and below the giant and strategic waters surrounding Greenland in the GIUK gap. These seas and skies are essential for trade and defense.

Allies can be fickle, and demographics and leadership can change. Look at the recent threat to our American base, Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, and our even closer ally, the United Kingdom. The U.K. leadership has threatened our important base by proposing to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Thus, over time, the United States may lose control of strategic assets.