The bill is called Make Greenland Great Again, confirmed the office of Republican Andy Ogles, who drafted the bill, and his colleague Diane Harshbarger. A copy of the draft was previously published by Fox News Digital, and by Monday morning, ten Republican lawmakers had endorsed it.
Trump just said that he may declare war on Denmark to take Greenland.
“It might be that you’ll have to do something.” pic.twitter.com/gSIlrsd6rV
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 7, 2025
Trump has previously said he wants to make Greenland part of the United States and has not ruled out using military or economic power to convince Denmark to hand it over. Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US elections on November 5.
The bill, if passed, would allow Trump to enter into negotiations with Denmark on January 20, when he takes office as president.
“Congress hereby authorizes the President, beginning at 12:01 p.m. EST on January 20, 2025, to attempt to enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark to secure the acquisition of Greenland,” the bill reads.
Greenland has been under the control of Denmark for centuries, first as a colony and now as a semi-sovereign area under the Danish kingdom. It is subject to the Danish constitution, which means that any change to its legal status would require constitutional amendments.
Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede, who previously advocated for the island’s independence, has repeatedly stated that the island is not for sale and that it is up to its citizens to decide their future.
Greenland’s vast ice sheets and glaciers are rapidly retreating as the Earth warms due to accelerated climate change. That melting of the ice could allow drilling for oil and the mining of minerals like copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt. Those mineral resources are key to fast-growing industries that make wind turbines, power lines, batteries and electric vehicles.
Due to higher temperatures, about 28,500 square kilometers of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers have already melted in the past three decades, an area roughly the size of the US state of Massachusetts.
In 2023, the Danish government published a report detailing Greenland’s potential as a rich deposit of valuable minerals. The Arctic island has “favorable conditions for the deposition of ores, including many critical raw minerals.”
Melting Arctic ice also opens up a new strategic, geopolitical advantage – shorter and more efficient sea routes. For example, navigation through the Arctic Sea from Western Europe to Eastern Asia is about 40 percent shorter compared to sailing through the Suez Canal. Ship traffic in the Arctic has already increased by 37 percent in the past decade, according to a recent report by the Arctic Council.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said last week that she does not believe that President-elect Donald Trump would try to take Greenland by force.
“We have no reason to believe that will happen,” she stated.
Frederiksen confirmed that she is trying to establish talks with the newly elected US President Donald Trump about his statements about taking control of Greenland.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” Frederiksen said, adding that Denmark was open to discussions about US interests in the Arctic.
Under the 1951 pact, the US accepted a legal obligation to defend against any attack on the vast Arctic island given the inability of the Danish armed forces to resist a potential aggressor unaided.
The US significantly reduced its military presence on the island after the end of the Cold War, but an early warning radar station remains at the Pituffik base in northwest Greenland. It is a key tool that can spot aircraft and ballistic missiles, including potential Russian nuclear ICBMs.
(Vijesti.ba / HINA)
