The newly elected US President Donald Trump, who claims the territory of Greenland, seeks to reduce the US's dependence on imports of critical metals from China, as Beijing can use access to them as a tool in a trade war, according to the next US leader. This is reported by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
“Currently, the deposits of rare earth elements in Greenland are of great interest not only to the US, but also to many other countries, as China remains a monopolist on the global market“, the publication quotes the opinion of an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College Jacobsen.
According to the US government, China provides 72% of the US's needs for rare earth metals. At least 40% of all graphite coming to the United States is imported from China. As the newspaper notes, the rocky hills along the coastal regions of Greenland, which is a Danish territory and has broad autonomy rights, are rich in huge quantities of rare earth metals - graphite, copper and lithium. The WSJ emphasizes that these are “critical materials for the development of green and military technologies, the production of artificial intelligence chips”.
“Greenland is starting to become much more attractive to those hoping to overcome China's huge influence on rare earth exports. Climate change is helping to solve some problems. But what does not change are the general conditions - the lack of the necessary infrastructure and labor, which makes mining in Greenland extremely difficult and expensive," Mark Lantain, a professor at the Norwegian University of Tromsø, noted in an interview with the publication.
On January 7, Trump said that Greenland should become part of the United States to ensure its national security. The newly elected president suggested that Greenlanders could vote for independence or join the United States. He warned of his readiness to impose high tariffs on Denmark if its authorities decide to continue to claim an autonomous unit within the kingdom. Already during his first presidential term, Trump said that the United States could buy the island. As then, the authorities of Greenland and Denmark rejected this idea. The head of the government of Greenland, Mute Egede, said that Greenland is not for sale.