Why does the United States keep looking north?
This is the most important topic nowadays, which is in debates in every friends' forum and in corner meetings, due to USA President Donald Trump's statements regarding Greenland.
Before jumping into this debate, first take a geographic look at Greenland.
Greenland is the world's largest island, holding a large ice sheet with a tiny population.
In this GuidedBite post we will try to explain the following questions, which are in the minds of common people.
Where is Greenland?
What is the geographic condition of Greenland?
What resources does Greenland hold?
Why does the USA want to jump into Greenland?
Where is Greenland and what is its geographic condition?
Here are the answers for the common man who has no idea about Greenland.
Greenland is placed in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean , northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland, and 75 % to 80% of the area is covered with an ice sheet.
Due to its geographic location, it is a gateway between Europe and North America.
It is pertinent to mention that Greenland is the Iceland of the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark is located in Northern Europe.
Denmark has roughly 1400 islands, one of which is Greenland.
Now the most important part is that Greenland has its own government within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Due to this foreign policy, defense, security, and citizenship are still held by the government of Denmark.
Greenland is very small in population, and as an estimation, 58000 people are living there.
Greenland Average temperature in winter is (-28°C) and in summer is (10°C).
In June there is the longest day (approximately 19 hrs) of the year, and in December there is the shortest day (approximately 5 hrs) of the year.
What resources does Greenland hold?
Now, look into the resources of Greenland, which has a huge amount of rare minerals like molybdenum, graphite, niobium, tantalum, zinc, copper, and iron.
Greenland’s outsizes importance.
Strategic geography. Greenland is located on the shortest polar routes between North America and Europe.
Having ideal locations for air bases and radar surveillance. This is very important for the USA military, especially as a precaution after the Iran-Israel war for the timely detection of guided missiles.
That matters for military early-warning systems, trans-Atlantic logistics, and operations in the Arctic.
When people ask, “Why does Trump want Greenland?” they’re really asking two related questions: what did Trump say he wanted to do, and why did he give those reasons?
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According to BBC
"US President Donald Trump insists his country needs to acquire Greenland for national security reasons and has not ruled out using military force.
While a possible purchase has also been suggested, Trump says he plans to take control of the island "the easy way" or "the hard way"."