In the USA, allies of Donald Trump are trying to gather support for a bill that gives the incoming president a mandate to negotiate the purchase of the island.
One should see it as a sign that there are Republicans who think Trump is acting correctly and think that Greenland should belong to the USA, says Jan Hallenberg, political scientist at the Foreign Policy Institute.
The USA has a history of buying land areas. In 1803, Louisiana was purchased from France, and in 1867, the purchase of Alaska from Russia was completed.
The Republicans view it as a real estate deal. They see Greenland as a kind of land that they want to develop, just like Trump would develop a new resort, says Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, lecturer in European Studies at Lund University.
But it's not certain that Trump's plan is actually to make Greenland American. The move may be about positioning himself.
Open to discussions
The real goal may be to secure the USA's economic and security interests, to allow the country to build more military bases or for American companies to start extracting the island's natural resources – or to prevent Russian and Chinese interests from doing the same.
I think the Americans will demand a security policy military buildup, possibly from both the Danes and the Americans themselves, says Hallenberg.
The Greenlanders themselves have rejected the idea of becoming Americans, but say they are open to discussions.
Anamaria Dutceac Segesten believes, for example, that they might consider mining investments, if they are done in the right way.
Greenland has received a lot of attention now, and that's something they enjoy. For they have always felt a bit forgotten, despite their strategic position and mineral wealth.
In a pinch
She also believes that the Greenlanders can use the interest from the USA to improve their negotiating position with Denmark.
Greenland can say that now we have an interested party here who wants to develop us and give us so many billions of dollars. What can Denmark offer? Can Denmark assist in any way?
Denmark, on the other hand, is in a bit of a pinch.
Denmark is actually in a very difficult position because they cannot allow themselves to be very critical of the USA. Denmark is completely dependent on the USA for its security policy, says Anamaria Dutceac Segesten.
Greenland has large natural resources, much of which are unexploited. Among other things, there are 25 of the 34 critical raw materials that the EU Commission has identified as strategically important for Europe's industry and the green transition.
Greenland has resources including rare earth metals, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, and tungsten.
Currently, the USA has the Pituffik Space Base military base on Greenland, a base that belongs to the space forces and, among other things, deals with robot defense and surveillance. Denmark's Arctic Command is responsible for the protection of Greenland and the Faroe Islands and has its headquarters in the Greenlandic capital Nuuk.
Denmark provides an annual contribution of nearly 4 billion Danish kronor (6.17 billion Swedish kronor) to Greenland's economy.
Sources: Landguiden/UI, Arctic Command, Pituffik Space Base, Reuters
