'We need it, absolutely' Options and risks for US in trying to gain control

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that the US needs to control of Greenland, a mineral-rich part of Denmark with foreign and security policy run from Copenhagen.

- Jon Henley Miranda Bryant

Donald Trump has said of the territory: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.” The White House has said using the US military is “always an option”, but few analysts believe an armed operation is likely and France’s foreign minister has said US secretary of state Marco Rubio has ruled out an invasion.

Last weekend’s events in Venezuela and Donald Trump’s unpredictability mean nothing can ever really be excluded, however, and the US has other ways of fulfilling the president’s ambitions. Here are some of the options.

Buy Greenland

The US first floated the idea of making Copenhagen an offer for the Arctic island in 1867 after purchasing Alaska from Russia. It reconsidered the idea in 1910, and in 1917 bought what are now the US Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25m (£18.5m).

‘As the cold war got underway, the Truman administration made a formal offer in 1946 - but only made public in 1991 - of $100m, arguing it was “completely worthless to Denmark ... and the control of Greenland is indispensable to the safety of the US”.

Copenhagen declined and since 2019, when Trump first expressed interest in the island, the Danish and Greenlandic governments have repeatedly said it is not for sale.

Rubio, however, reportedly told members of Congress this week the goal was to purchase the territory.

Legal and constitutional experts have noted that the era when countries could buy or barter others’ territories - and their people - is long gone. The international legal principle of self-determination makes an outright sale more or less impossible.

Under their 2009 self-rule law, Greenlanders can hold a referendum on independence. It is up to the island’s 57,000 inhabitants to decide their future. A poll in January found 85% did not want their homeland to be part of the US, with only 6% in favour.

Woo Greenland