Greenland’s foreign minister has proposed that the European Union develop the island’s valuable mineral resources amid threats by US President Donald Trump to seize the island.
With vast reserves of rare earth metals and a strategic location in the Arctic, Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark with a population of around 60,000 — has become an increasingly important geopolitical player, whose role on the world stage has grown following Trump’s aggressive statements.
In an exclusive interview with POLITICO during a diplomatic trip to Brussels, Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said she wanted to deepen “bilateral” ties with the EU and highlighted Greenland’s precious minerals as an area for co-operation.
“They get some fish from us, and on the other side we have a free market, we can export to the EU without any extra costs,” she said. “But today, we want to expand our co-operation based on not only fisheries, we want to expand our co-operation on our critical minerals and energy. That’s what Greenland has, and the rest of the world, our like-minded countries, need a greener future, renewable energy.”
Deep beneath Greenland’s ice sheet lie about 40 of the 50 minerals that the United States considers vital to its national security. These resources, ranging from uranium to graphite, are critical to manufacturing and global supply chains, although Greenland’s reserves are largely unexplored and undeveloped.
Its mineral wealth means the island has the answer to “a very key question” that could bring about “strengthened co-operation with the EU,” Motzfeldt said. “Of course, we want to have co-operation with our critical minerals with our like-minded countries, and [the] EU is a good partner, we like them,” she said.
The Greenlandic politician, who met with High Representative Kaja Kallas on Thursday, invited members of the European Union’s executive body to visit the island.
“All the commissioners who want to come and visit us are more than welcome,” she said.
Motzfeldt also sharply criticised the Trump administration over reports of US espionage in Greenland, after The Wall Street Journal reported last week that US intelligence agencies had been instructed to gather information on the island.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen subsequently summoned the American ambassador to express his protest and demand answers.
“We’re supposed to be friends. We are allies. Allies don’t do such things,” Motzfeldt said. “The situation is new to us, and new to the rest of the world, because you don’t do … that to your ally.”
The alleged covert operations are a new chapter in a campaign of pressure by the United States that began with Trump’s refusal to rule out acquiring Greenland by military force and led to the dispatch of the president’s eldest son and Vice President J.D. Vance to the island.
“It is a threat as soon as you start to talk about military occupation,” Motzfeldt said when asked whether Trump’s saber-rattling posed a credible danger to Greenland. “Of course they can come and visit us … and we have long wished to have more co-operation with the United States … But on a different rhetoric, on a reliable way.”
Greenland used to have about a dozen US military bases, but now only one remains — the Thule Air Base, located in the frozen north of the island. Motzfeldt said she was ready for new US military bases on Greenlandic soil and increased US investment in Greenland’s young mining sector, but not for the seizure of the island.
“United States security is our security. We have the same interests,” she said. “And according to our defence agreement, it’s already possible to build more bases, or if you want to, invest in our mining, it’s already possible. But what is not possible is to buy us.”
Greenland was once a part of the EU but withdrew following a referendum in 1985 — yet Brussels has been a reliable partner in “challenging times,” Motzfeldt said.
“We have seen the EU supporting Greenland,” she said. “Our co-operation with the EU is important, and today it’s more important [than] ever … The situation today demands that we stand together.”
