A demonstrator holds a sign that reads “We are not for sale” in front of the U.S. consulate under the slogan “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” in Nuuk, Greenland, March 15, 2025.
Christian Clint Zelbeck | AFP | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump’s ambitions for Greenland are rapidly taking shape – evolving from rhetoric to action.
Mining company Amarok told CNBC that the White House is in talks with it about investing in a mining project in Greenland. If it is a purely business transaction, it may not be unwelcome. Arja Chemnitz, the lawmaker representing Greenland in Denmark’s parliament and chair of the Greenland Commission, told CNBC that the island is “open for business.”
However, just because we remain open does not mean we welcome takeover proposals. “It was clear from the beginning that Greenland is not and never will be for sale,” Chemnitz said.
But it could be a topic of discussion in U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s talks with Danish officials next week. The talks were initiated by Denmark’s Foreign Minister Loke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, with Rubio seeking to discuss how the United States could acquire the Arctic island.
According to a center-right US think tank, in a highly hypothetical scenario (let’s call it a thought experiment) in which the US buys Greenland, the island would be worth nearly $2.8 trillion, but other political parties are underestimating that number.
Mr. Rubio will also have to deal with difficult issues, including Greenlanders’ desire for independence and Europe’s response. While Russia has been conspicuously silent when it comes to other world powers, perhaps because it wants NATO to split on the issue, China, which in 2018 described itself as a “near-Arctic nation,” is closely watching developments. Any deal or operation of this scale would have global implications.
