it's the largest island in the world bursting with valuable raw materials and for America's military vitally important and Donald Trump wants to buy it well we need Greenland for national security purposes I've been told that for a long time long before I even ran Greenland has been part of Denmark for 600 years during the Cold War President Truman offered a $100 million in gold to buy it but Copenhagen refused to sell in 2019 Donald Trump tried again but the idea was once more rejected by Greenland and Denmark Danish Prime Minister meta Frederickson called it absurd
Mr Trump retaliated by cancelling a visit to Denmark so what's so special about this huge Arctic Island it's one of those things where you look at a map and uh there's Europe and Russia and there's the United States and look what's in between them the world's biggest island Greenland and Trump wants to do this for a number of reasons mostly trade and Military on trade uh it's as the as the ice melts it's going to open up fast to Sea routs on the military side though this is the Guk Gap Greenland Iceland UK and the
Sea routs coming down and that's where the Russian submarines come and they go under the ice and the Russian Ships Come and the Americans want a lot more access to be able to monitor all that they also want access to to the the many many minerals that are present rare earth materials iron all sorts of minerals and many of them that are required for military technology which at the moment China has um the majority of access to the to the world's minerals the US military already has a large air base on Greenland built in the
1950s fuel Air Force Base was home to bomber and transport aircraft nowadays renamed as piix space it's used as an early warning station one of seven around the globe that America uses to detect incoming missiles for NATO including of course the UK it's a valuable military asset the fact is that if the Americans did or could buy that territory they would then seriously ramp up the amount of radar facilities that they have there they've only got one air base there at the moment they'd like a lot more up there in the high North because this
is an are of growing importance to Nato so if the Americans pulled it off big if then that would facilitate and actually assist the UK's eyes and ears on a region that is quite close to us so what did the greenlanders make of this well in 2009 the island was granted autonomy including the right to vote for Independence through a referendum most people in Greenland do favor the idea but they also know how heavily the Island's economy relies on Denmark's $1 billion annual subsidy if they did vote for independence from Denmark I think it would
be the favorite to have influence there would be the United States without question but there is no way that the Chinese would not miss the opportunity in a newly independent Greenland to say whatever the Americans offer you will match it or maybe even double it and the Russians would try and play there too but at the moment I think they're just watching and waiting and seeing how this how this turns out but this is not some mad Bluster by Trump this is part of 21st century geopolitics Denmark's prime minister says it's up to Greenland and
Greenland alone to determine its future but with Donald Trump Junior jetting in to visit the new Administration is already showing its intent the island still firmly on the new president shopping list Simon Newton bfbs forces news thanks for watching for more from bfbs forces news like And subscribe to our Channel
