Greenland will ‘stay Greenland’, ex-Trump adviser declares

Donald Trump cannot force Greenland to change ownership, a former top adviser to the US president told the BBC.

IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn, who advised Trump on the economy in his first term, said “Greenland will stay Greenland” and linked the need for access to critical minerals to his former employer’s plans for the territory.

Cohn is one of America’s top tech bosses, a leader in the race to develop AI and quantum computing, and served under Trump as director of the White House National Economic Council.

In a sign of how seriously business leaders are taking the crisis, he warned that “an invasion of an independent country that is part of Nato” could be “over the edge”.

He also suggested the president’s recent comments about Greenland “could be part of a negotiation”.

“I just came from a meeting of the US congressional delegation, and I think there is a mutual agreement among Republicans and Democrats that Greenland will remain Greenland”, he said.

Greenland would be happy for the US to increase its military presence on the island, he said, as the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean “become more of a military threat”.

The US could also negotiate an “offtake” agreement for Greenland abundant but unused supplies of rare earth minerals, Cohn suggested.

“But I think, you know, invading a country that doesn’t want to be invaded – that’s part of a militaristic alliance, Nato – I think it’s a little bit out of scope at this point”, he said.

Cohn indicated that the president may have exaggerated his demands as part of a negotiating tactic — something he said the president has done successfully in the past.

“You have to give Donald Trump some credit for the successes he’s had and many times he’s tried to overreach to get something out of a compromise situation,” he said.

“He’s overreaching in announcing something to get what he wants. Maybe what he wants is a bigger military presence and an offtake.”

The start of this year’s World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos was overshadowed by the president’s more aggressive stance on arctic territory, with many political and business leaders alarmed about the potential geopolitical and economic impact. Trump is to address delegates at Wednesday’s gathering.

While Cohn expressed reservations about some of the president’s actions, he said the US administration had “a lot of different motives” for what they did.

He said that Trump’s decision to intervene in Venezuela is “one way” to will destroy the relationship of the country with China, its largest oil market, as well as Russia and Cuba.

Cohn also thinks that the president has become more focused on the importance of rare earth minerals, saying that “Greenland has an ample supply” of resources.

Minerals are crucial to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing – also a key talking point at Davos.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday pushed back on claims that Trump has blamed his growing threats on Greenland the fact that he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump blamed the country for not giving him the prize and said he was no longer obliged to think only of peace.

Bessent said: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway, and I think it’s a complete canard that the President would do it because of the Nobel Prize.

“The president sees Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States. We will not outsource our hemispheric security to anyone.”

Advances in quantum computing and AI are seen as critical not only for the US economy and productivity, but for US strategic influence in the world.

“IBM is the dead center of what is happening in quantum today. We have the largest amount of quantum computers in use today “said Cohn, emphasizing that his company has put many of these computers to use across America in companies from the banking industry to medicine.

“AI is going to be the backbone for quantum feeding data to solve problems we haven’t solved yet”, he added.

“Where we’re going is AI will be part of everyone’s business. AI and quantum will work in business behind the scenes to make every company more efficient. And we’re still at the beginning of that kind of long road, and it’s probably going to take three to five years to get there.”

Earlier this month, Google, also a US company, told the BBC that it has the best performing quantum computer in the world. The race to develop technology is another important talking point – apart from Greenland – at the World Economic Forum.