Professor Jacobson reported that President Donald Trump postponed a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after her refusal to discuss selling Greenland.
In fact, Frederiksen called the idea “absurd”, and dismissed the notion that Greenland was for sale at all.
Right on cue, the American press began clutching its pearls and deriding Trump for his blunt assessment of the Danish leader’s diplomatic skills.
As an American and a patriot, there is something that bothers me far more than Trump’s biting directness. When the Greenland proposal first made news, our press immediately decided that the idea was absolutely “absurd”…which fed into the Dane’s worldview. More professional and sober journalists would have perhaps investigated possible motives for purchasing Greenland.
Therefore, it is only when I turned to foreign publications that I had my first clue for a potential reason behind the move. According to the South China Morning Post, Greenland had been seriously courted by China due to its strategic location and its mineral resources.
The accelerating polar ice melt has left sparsely populated Greenland, a self-governing part of Denmark, astride what are potentially major shipping routes and in the crosshairs of intensifying geopolitical competition between superpowers.It also has untapped natural resources like oil, minerals and valuable rare earth elements that China, the United States and other major tech economies covet.A Chinese government-backed group’s offer last year to build three new international airports on Greenland sparked alarms in Copenhagen and Washington.The Chinese plan was finally nixed in exchange for Danish funding and a pledge of support from the Pentagon.
Why would this be a problem? To start with, a map of the island’s position shows that while it may be a glacier-covered morass teeming with seals, it is smack dab in the middle of flight paths between the US and our allies and interests in Europe. In fact, this summer, I traveled over this area on route to Iceland.
A “stable genius” and his military commanders obviously recognized that a competitor who is failing to negotiate fair trade agreements and who has been expanding its military presence in Asia through island building wants to acquire real estate and airports next to American interests in North America. This is clearly a bad deal for our country.
Fox News analyst Tammy Bruce provides further background on the situation, and demonstrates why it sure looked like Greenland was for sale.
In 2017, Greenland’s prime minister flew to China and asked, as the Journal reported in February of this year, “Chinese state-run banks to finance the new commercial airports, including a big one for one of the smallest capitals on earth, Nuuk, which can now be served only by propeller planes. The bankers were interested, people at the meetings said, so long as a Chinese company constructed the airports.”Reports indicate this action was triggered by Denmark refusing to help.Then-Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis was not happy and convinced Danish officials to fund the infrastructure, sidelining China. This was an effort by China starting in 2018 and only ending when they officially withdrew in June of this year. For those who look past their shallow view of the United States and the administration, one would know it’s no coincidence that the president’s remarks on Greenland became public just two months after we successfully fought off China in their latest swing at the North American island.
As Tammy notes, the Danes are keeping Greenland as a giant nature preserve. This substantially limits the wealth-building options of its residents.
Finally, it is important to note that the Trump administration has been supportive of the mining industry, especially rare earths production (a market which China dominates). Our President has been focused on providing our nation options in regards to the tech-essential minerals, which can be found in the Kvanefjeld region that produces uranium ore.
Greenland Minerals said in its June quarter report that the latest work had confirmed Kavenefjeld as: “one of the most significant emerging rare earth projects globally with a large projected output of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium”.The most important future use of the rare earths at Kavenfjeld is expected to be in electric motors as well as a large number of advanced and strategically sensitive technologies.
Can you imagine how a President Hillary Clinton would have dealt with the Chinese interest in Greenland?
One last thought. Denmark’s elites are not indicative of their people’s attitudes toward the US. In fact, we were in Copenhagen in 2015, and the many shops and restaurants were flying the American flag. They are better friends to our nation than the Trump Derangement infected press.
Perhaps it is time for good people of Greenland to vote for #Dexit?
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY