{"id":17516,"date":"2019-08-16T13:21:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T13:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/16\/greenlands-not-for-sale-but-it-is-strategically-important\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:39:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:39:43","slug":"greenlands-not-for-sale-but-it-is-strategically-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2019\/08\/16\/greenlands-not-for-sale-but-it-is-strategically-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenland\u2019s not for sale, but it is strategically important"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The internet was abuzz Thursday evening following a report by the Wall Street Journal<\/a> that President Donald Trump has expressed interest in buying Greenland. By Friday, it had become clear Greenland has no interest in selling<\/a>, but jokes about penguins, polar bears and climate change kept flying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the idea seemed custom built for the Twitter mockery cycle, the U.S. does have vital national security interests in Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark \u2014 and the region is attracting attention from competitor China as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a self-rule act passed in 2009, Greenland has control over its domestic infrastructure or economic policy issues, but Denmark maintains veto power on security issues. Even if Denmark was interested in selling Greenland \u2014 and it appears they are not \u2014 it is likely the government in Nuuk could block it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the U.S. doesn\u2019t really need all of Greenland for strategic reasons, because of the basing agreements it already has, including one of the U.S. military\u2019s most important strategic tracking systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\t