{"id":7840,"date":"2026-01-07T16:28:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7840"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:28:47","slug":"do-russia-and-china-pose-a-national-security-threat-to-the-us-in-greenland-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7840","title":{"rendered":"Do Russia and China pose a national security threat to the US in Greenland? | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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US President Donald Trump sees Greenland as a United States national security priority to deter Washington\u2019s \u201cadversaries in the Arctic region\u201d, according to a White House statement released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The statement came days after Trump told reporters that the US needs Greenland from a national security perspective because it is \u201ccovered with Russian and Chinese ships\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about what Trump said, whether Russia and China are present in Greenland, and whether they do pose a threat to American security.<\/p>\n

What has Trump recently said about Greenland?<\/h2>\n

\u201cRight now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on January 4.<\/p>\n

The White House statement on Tuesday fleshed out further details on how the US would go about its acquisition of Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief\u2019s disposal,\u201d the White House statement says.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his second term, Trump has talked about wanting Greenland for national security reasons multiple times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,\u201d he said in March.<\/p>\n

Since 1979, Greenland has been a self-governing territory of Denmark, and since 2009, it has had the right to declare independence through a referendum.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to take control of the island, which hosts a US military base. He first voiced this desire in 2019, during his first term as US president.<\/p>\n

As a response, leaders from Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said that Greenland is not for sale. They have made it clear that they are especially not interested in becoming part of the US.<\/p>\n

On January 4, Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, \u201cIt makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing to take over Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish kingdom,\u201d she said, alluding to the Faroe Islands, which, like Greenland, are also a Danish territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would therefore strongly urge the US to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale,\u201d Frederiksen said.<\/p>\n

US special forces abducted<\/a> Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during an operation in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on January 3.<\/p>\n

Hours later, Katie Miller, the wife of close Trump aide and US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, posted a photo on X showing the US flag imposed on the map of Greenland.<\/p>\n

Greenland\u2019s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen hit back in an X post, writing, \u201cRelations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law \u2013 not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does Trump want Greenland so badly?<\/h2>\n

The location and natural resources of the Arctic island make it strategically important for Washington.<\/p>\n

Greenland is geographically part of North America, located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean. It is home to some 56,000 residents, mostly\u00a0Indigenous Inuit people.<\/p>\n

It is the world\u2019s largest island. Greenland\u2019s capital, Nuuk, is closer to New York City\u00a0 \u2013 some 2,900km (1,800 miles) away \u2013 than the Danish capital Copenhagen, which is located 3,500km (2,174 miles) to the east.<\/p>\n

Greenland, a NATO territory through Denmark, is an EU-associated overseas country and territory whose residents remain European Union citizens, having joined the European Community with Denmark in 1973 but having withdrawn in 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really tricky if the United States decides to use military power to take over Greenland. Denmark is a member of NATO; the United States is a member as well. It really calls into question what the purpose of the military alliance is, if that happens,\u201d Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Eurasia Center, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Greenland offers the shortest route from North America to Europe. This gives the US a strategic upper hand for its military and its ballistic missile early-warning system.<\/p>\n

The US has expressed interest in expanding its military presence in Greenland by placing radars in the waters connecting Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. These waters are a gateway for Russian and Chinese vessels, which Washington aims to track.<\/p>\n

The island is also incredibly rich in minerals, including rare earth minerals used in the high-tech industry and in the manufacture of batteries.<\/p>\n

According to a 2023 survey, 25 of 34 minerals deemed \u201ccritical raw materials\u201d by the European Commission were found in Greenland.<\/p>\n

Greenland does not carry out the extraction of oil and gas, and its mining sector is opposed by its Indigenous population. The island\u2019s economy is largely reliant on its fishing industry.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE<\/p>\n

Are Chinese and Russian ships swarming Greenland?<\/h2>\n

However, while Trump has spoken of Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland, currently, facts don\u2019t bear that out.<\/p>\n

Vessel tracking data from maritime data and intelligence websites such as MarineTraffic do not show the presence of Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland.<\/p>\n

Are Russia and China a threat to Greenland?<\/h2>\n

The ships\u2019 location aside, Trump\u2019s rhetoric comes amid a heightened scramble for the Arctic.<\/p>\n

Amid global warming, the vast untapped resources of the Arctic are becoming more accessible. Countries like the US, Canada, China and Russia are now eyeing these resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernising military infrastructure,\u201d Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an address in March 2025 at the International Arctic Forum in the Russian city of Murmansk, the largest city within the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n

During this address, Putin said that he believed Trump was serious about taking Greenland and that the US will continue with efforts to acquire it.<\/p>\n

In December 2024,\u00a0Canada released a policy document<\/a>\u00a0detailing plans to ramp up its military and diplomatic presence in the Arctic. Russia is also\u00a0constructing military installations\u00a0and power plants in the region.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Russia and China have been\u00a0working together\u00a0to develop Arctic shipping routes as Moscow seeks to deliver more oil and gas to China amid Western sanctions while\u00a0Beijing seeks an alternative shipping route\u00a0to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca.<\/p>\n

The Northern Sea Route (NSR), a maritime route in the Arctic Ocean, is becoming easier to navigate due to melting ice. The NSR can cut shipping trips significantly short. Russia is hoping to ramp up commerce through the NSR to trade more with Asia than Europe due to Western sanctions. Last year, the number of oil shipments from Russia to China via the NSR rose by a quarter.<\/p>\n

China is also probing the region, and has sent 10 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and built research vessels to survey the icy waters north of Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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US President Donald Trump sees Greenland as a United States national security priority to deter Washington\u2019s \u201cadversaries in the Arctic region\u201d, according to a White House statement released on Tuesday. The statement came days after Trump told reporters that the US needs Greenland from a national security perspective because it is \u201ccovered with Russian and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}