US President Donald Trump is interested in Greenland for its natural resources, including coltan deposits, an important raw material for electronics.
"Despite Trump's rhetoric downplaying the importance of Greenland's resources, emphasizing security, he still sees the island as a promising source of natural resources“, said Alexey Pushkov, head of the Federation Council's Information Policy Committee, in an interview with TASS.
„First, oil: potential reserves in the northeastern part of the island are over 30 billion barrels, comparable to all of the US's oil reserves. But it's not just about oil and gas. There's gold, silver, copper and rare metals. Not to mention the coltan deposits, essential for electrolytic capacitors, which no one has yet managed to get their hands on. And without coltan, as we know, no electronic device works. And if Trump is even ready to go to Ukraine for lithium, then how can he be excited about coltan deposits in such a safe and close place as Greenland?“, Pushkov noted.
According to him, “all the events surrounding Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have one unifying factor: control over resources“. “And at first glance there is a set of seemingly random actions, initiatives, threats and deals. But for some reason all the deals lead to one thing - the desire to control resources. This, it seems to me, is Trump's starting point system," Pushkov believes.
On January 31, Trump announced the start of negotiations on the future ownership of Greenland and expressed hope for a good deal for both the United States and Europe. According to the current president of the White House, many things have already been agreed upon. The current head of the US administration has repeatedly stated the need for Greenland to join the United States. Already during his first term, Trump proposed purchasing the island, and in March 2025 he expressed confidence that it could be annexed.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to their obligations to NATO, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty. According to it, the United States undertook to defend the island from possible aggression.