A protester holds a sign reading “We will not be sold” with the slogan “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people” in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland on March 15, 2025.
Christian Klindt Soelbeck | Afp | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump’s ambitions around Greenland are quickly taking concrete form, that is, turning from rhetoric to action.
Mining company Amaroq told CNBC that the White House is in talks with the firm about investing in mining projects in Greenland. If it’s a purely business deal, it might not be so bad: Aadja Chemnitz, the member of parliament representing Greenland in the Danish parliament and chair of the Greenland Committee, told CNBC that the island is “open for business.”
However, being open for business does not necessarily mean accepting a takeover bid. “It was clear from the beginning that Greenland was not for sale and never would be,” Chemnitz said.
But it may be on the agenda for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s scheduled meeting with Danish authorities next week. While Danish Foreign Minister Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motsfeldt, initiated the meeting, Rubio tried to negotiate. How the US can own an Arctic island.
In a very hypothetical scenario – let’s call it a thought experiment – the US buys Greenland, an island estimated at about 2.8 trillion dollarsAccording to the center-right US think tank, other parties considered this figure to be low.
Rubio will also have to deal with complex issues such as Greenland’s push for independence and Europe’s response. As for other global powers, well Russia is very peaceful — probably because NATO is interested in seeing any disagreements over the matter — China is watching the events closelyIn 2018, it described itself as a “near-Arctic state”. Any transaction or operation of this magnitude has a global effect.