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European Union
OpinionComment
Andrew Hammond
Andrew Hammond

Opinion | Europe moves to join China and the US in the Arctic gold rush

  • Given growing geopolitical interest in the Arctic Circle, it is no surprise that the EU is raising its profile in Greenland
  • The EU is also sealing a raw materials partnership with Greenland in an attempt to reduce Europe’s reliance on China

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede cut the ribbon to mark the opening of a new EU office in Nuuk on March 15. The opening of the office is part of the European Union’s Arctic strategy. Photo: EPA-EFE
Andrew Hammond
Greenland is about 80 per cent ice-capped and until the 1940s was a protected, isolated society. Today, the growing geopolitical and geoeconomic focus on the Arctic Circle has made the world’s largest island a major prize for powers including China, Russia, the United States and the European Union.
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As the region’s melting ice caps expose unclaimed ocean and land, what has been called a new gold rush has commenced for the Arctic’s territory, natural resources and strategic position. The economic value of this is obvious. However, the geopolitical dimension is also key, given the Arctic’s critical location between North America and Eurasia.

In this context, the 810,000 square-mile Greenland is an increasingly prominent player with huge potential. This is not least as it boasts the world’s northernmost territory off its coast, which is the closest point of land to the North Pole.

In recent decades, Greenland, with a small population of fewer than 60,000, has become a largely autonomous territory of Denmark. These days, Denmark – which is one of 27 European Union states and also a member of Nato, the transatlantic security alliance – retains only control of the island’s monetary policy and foreign relations.

One sign of Greenland’s growing prominence came in 2019 when Donald Trump, then president of the United States, floated the idea of buying the huge island. This was dismissed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as “absurd”.
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Nonetheless, the United States soon after reopened a consulate on the island in 2020. The United States has had military assets on the island since World War II, including Pituffik Space Base, which was built as Thule Air Base in 1951 and has a ballistic missile early warning system and satellite tracking.

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