Name: Greenland: Why is it valuable? | REUTERS
Uploaded: 2026-01-09T15:00:34.000Z
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Greenland is the world's biggest island with a population of just 57,000 people.

It's controlled by Denmark and through its association with Denmark, it's a part of NATO.

Greenland was a Danish colony from 1721 until 1953, when it formally became part of Denmark.

And in 2009, it got so-called self-rule, which allows it the right to declare independence through a vote if it wants to.

[Why does the U.S. care about Greenland?]

The island holds great strategic importance to the United States military

Any missiles that would come in towards the North American continent from Europe or from Russia would go via this island.

The United States military already has a permanent presence at the Pituffik airbase.

And they have had pretty much unlimited access to Greenland since Denmark and the United States signed a defense agreement back in 1951.

Apart from its great military strategic importance,

the island also holds vast natural resources.

Greenland has several of the critical raw materials.

Lithium, graphite that Europe and the United States need in order to become less dependent on China for these critical materials.

These resources largely have stayed in the ground.

Many, if not all, of the big projects have been stalled.

They've met resistance from indigenous people who basically would like to have their hunting and fishing grounds unspoiled and untouched.

Greenland has many ties to Denmark, both family ties and cultural ties.

But the people of Greenland have also been moving away from Denmark, over the last decade or so

More and more details have emerged about misconduct by Danish authorities of the Greenlandic people.

This includes forced contraception of young Greenlandic women

and also forced removal of Greenlandic kids from their parents to Denmark.

Polls show that the people of Greenland do want independence.

But they also show that people realize that the economy is too fragile,

it's too dependent on annual grants from Denmark.

It's too dependent on the fisheries industry.

And people know that independence or Greenland as an independent state will not be economically sustainable.