{"id":85974,"date":"2026-05-19T10:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/85974\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:06:25","slug":"trump-demands-power-to-veto-greenland-deals-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/85974\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump demands power to veto Greenland deals with China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has demanded a clause that would amount to a \u201cveto\u201d over any future Chinese or Russian investments in Greenland<\/a>, The Telegraph can report.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic sources have revealed that preventing Beijing from accessing<\/a> the substantial mineral reserves buried deep beneath the ice has become a key objective for the Trump administration in talks over the island.<\/p>\n

Officials from the United States, Greenland and Denmark have been locked in secret negotiations over a deal that satisfies the US president\u2019s desire to control the territory.<\/p>\n

The talks were designed to provide Mr Trump with an off-ramp to his threats of a military takeover of the Arctic<\/a> island, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.<\/p>\n

It is understood that the US sees the minerals buried deep under the island\u2019s ice sheets as a strategic reserve in case of a war with China.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beijing has a stranglehold over the materials crucial for the hi-tech production of everything from electric cars to missiles, radar systems and fighter jets.<\/p>\n

Chinese mines account for around 70 per cent of the global supply of rare earths, but more crucially, the Asian superpower controls 90 per cent of the world\u2019s processing capacity.<\/p>\n

It is feared that Xi Jinping, China\u2019s president, could use the bottleneck to his advantage should Beijing and Washington find themselves at war over Taiwan.<\/p>\n

One source close to the negotiations over Greenland said the Trump administration was using these concerns over China as an excuse to gain a greater foothold in Greenland.<\/p>\n

Another said the US would only attempt to extract much of the oil, uranium, rare earths and other critical minerals beneath the ice in the event that Beijing puts a squeeze on global supplies.<\/p>\n

The US, while largely unaffected by the Iranian chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, has become more aware of the impact a single country can have on international trade.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Trump and Xi Jinping during a US state visit to Bejing on May 14 – KENNY HOLSTON<\/p>\n

In the past decade, Chinese firms have invested in a series of mining projects in Greenland, but none has ever been considered a major success.<\/p>\n

The veto powers demanded by Washington would stop firms linked to Beijing from brokering infrastructure or resource deals on the island\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n

Sources have suggested the US\u2019s demand is being hotly contested because it infringes on the Greenlandic government\u2019s sovereignty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US negotiators insisted on a similar clause in a trade deal with Britain, which allows Washington to flag concerns about potential Chinese takeovers.<\/p>\n

In the past four months, negotiators have met around five times to discuss an expansion of America\u2019s military presence on the island, which Mr Trump says is crucial to national security.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is pushing to open at least three new bases on Greenland by expanding a 1951 deal signed between Washington and Copenhagen, which permitted US forces free access and the right to build in designated defence zones.<\/p>\n

His officials had hoped to have the new bases designated as \u201cSovereign Base Areas\u201d, mimicking the status of Britain\u2019s military sites on Cyprus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But Danish and Greenlandic officials rebuffed this plan as a major breach of the island\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump is expected to become more focused on the negotiations as his attention to the Iran war seemingly winds down.<\/p>\n

His demands to keep China and Russia away from Greenland\u2019s mineral wealth will only be exacerbated by his state visit to Beijing.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has moved the competition for critical minerals from the margins of policy to the heart of great power rivalry.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s controls continue to tightly restrict exports of certain rare earths despite a deal at October\u2019s Busan summit, where the White House said China committed to \u201ceffectively eliminate\u201d all current and proposed critical mineral export controls.<\/p>\n

After Mr Xi and Mr Trump came face to face for a two-day summit<\/a> in Beijing, the White House said China had agreed to address concerns about rare earth shortages.<\/p>\n

One critical mineral mentioned for the first time by the White House is indium, which plays a key role in the upstream and downstream semiconductor supply chain and has been on a Chinese export control list since February 2025.<\/p>\n

Its compound indium phosphide is crucial for making &NoBreak;next-generation photonic chips that use light instead of electricity to process data, as well as high-speed optical lasers used in optical fibre and 6G networks. Another compound, indium tin oxide, is used to make LED screens in consumer electronics.<\/p>\n

Shortages of yttrium \u2013 part of a heat-protective coating in aircraft engines \u2013 and scandium, which is used in chip manufacturing, have severely affected US industry. Companies<\/a> have lobbied Washington to intervene with Beijing.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has demanded a clause that would amount to a \u201cveto\u201d over any future Chinese or Russian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[173,174,11760,184,57,24528,11763,178,19763],"class_list":["post-85974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-critical-minerals","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenland","tag-mr-trump","tag-rare-earths","tag-washington","tag-xi-jinping"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116600687161189892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}