Monday, 19 August 2019

National Review/Mairead McArdle: Greenland Says It’s ‘Not for Sale’ after Trump Expresses Interest in Buying


National Review
Upernavik in western Greenland, July 11, 2015 (Ritzau Scanpix/Linda Kastrup via Reuters)
Greenland said Friday that it was not for sale, a day after it was reported that President Trump had expressed interest in buying the autonomous Danish territory.
“Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism,” Greenland’s Foreign Ministry wrote on its Twitter account. “We’re open for business, not for sale.”
Greenland premier Kim Kielsen doubled down on the country’s stance in a statement, saying, “Greenland is not for sale, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries, including the USA.”
Other Danish and Greenland politicians brushed off the idea as well, to the general tone of, “forget it,” as Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov put it.
“No thanks to Trump buying Greenland!” Greenland MP Aaja Chemnitz Larsen said.
“It must be an April Fool’s Day joke…but totally out of [season]!” former Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen joked on Twitter.
Trump is said to have floated the idea of purchasing Greenland from Denmark more than once with aides, and the White House Counsel’s Office has even taken a closer look at how feasible such a move would be.
“What do you guys think about that?” he asked a room of associates at a dinner last spring, according to a Thursday Wall Street Journal report. “Do you think it would work?”
The U.S. already runs an Air Force Base in Greenland, Thule Air Base, which was constructed in 1961 and sits about 750 miles above the Arctic Circle. The base boasts a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, which would detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles launched at North America.
The territory of under 60,000 people is thought to be rich in natural resources such as diamonds, gold, uranium, oil, lead, zinc, and iron ore, which are becoming easier to access as the ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of its land area continues to thin.
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