Greenland returned to the center of transatlantic friction, when US President Donald Trump told the NATO summit in The Hague that the alliance had let Washington down twice: on the Arctic island itself and on the standoff with Iran, which he described as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
Appearing alongside Mark Rutte, NATO’s Secretary General, the US president made the case that Greenland belongs at the heart of Western defense planning. He pointed to the US troops stationed there during the Second World War and framed the postwar return of authority to Denmark as an error the US is still paying for.
“We took Greenland and then, stupidly, we gave it back,” Trump said. “We should not have given it back to them, because we are the ones that need it. We need it for the protection of the world, not just the United States.”
Copenhagen had preempted him. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, speaking hours before, promised to defend “every inch” of NATO territory and shut the door once more on any sale. “Our position is clear as it has been all through. Greenland is, of course, not for sale,” she said, urging allies to honor Greenlanders’ right to decide their own future and Denmark’s sovereignty. Once Trump had spoken, she returned to reporters with a terse assessment: the American stance was “unfortunately very clear,” and hers was unchanged.
The exchange unfolds against a diplomatic track that has run in parallel with the threats. Trump has never taken military annexation off the table, yet he and Rutte settled on a framework for negotiations in late January, and officials from the three governments have been meeting since to discuss security and economic ties. US forces already operate strategic installations on the island, rights secured through a decades-old defense treaty with Denmark, even though sovereignty has never been in US hands.
The Mineral Prize Behind the Rhetoric
The persistence of the campaign reflects what lies beneath the ice. Greenland hosts 25 of the 34 minerals the European Commission classifies as critical, from rare earths, graphite, and cobalt to uranium and titanium, and holds an estimated 36 million tons of rare earth elements at a time when China refines more than 90% of global supply. US interest has already turned financial: the Export-Import Bank signaled a US$120 million loan for Critical Metals Corp’s Tanbreez project, one of the world’s largest rare earth deposits, expected to yield up to 85,000t/y of material. Earlier flare-ups over the island helped push gold to record highs in January.
The episode also feeds a wider Western scramble that runs through Mexico. Washington and Brussels are negotiating a critical minerals coordination framework that would complement an agreement already in place with Mexico, following the February ministerial that gathered 55 nations around a preferential trade zone for strategic materials. For Mexico, which is seeking guaranteed access to 13 critical minerals it lacks while positioning Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango as North America’s supply alternative, every escalation over Arctic resources sharpens the value of politically stable, USMCA-integrated mineral production closer to the US market.