The United States has had a major interest in Greenland for many years, not only because of its strategic location between North America and Europe, but also because the island has valuable natural resources. It holds large deposits of rare earth minerals, natural gas and oil. As climate change melts the ice, new shipping lanes are opening. The United States also wants to keep control of the region in order to prevent Russian and Chinese presence there.
Denmark began colonizing Greenland in 1721. During World War II, the U.S. protected the island after Germany occupied Denmark. Over the years, Greenland changed from a Danish colony to a semi-autonomous territory. In the last 17 years Greenland has ruled itself in almost all domestic issues, but Denmark is still in charge of the island’s defence.
Since 1951 the United States has been operating an Air Force base in Greenland. Recently, the US, Denmark and Greenland have reached an agreement on the future status of the island. The main points are:
- The US military keeps the right to use air bases and fly over Greenland’s territory
- Non-NATO countries, above all Russia and China, are not allowed to build military bases or infrastructure on the island.
- Denmark keeps control of the island.
- The deal remains in place even if Greenlanders decide to become independent, some day in the future.
American air base in Greenland
Image: TSGT Lee E. Schading / U.S. Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Words
- agreement = a promise to do something made by two or more people or countries
- deposit = a layer of rock that has minerals or metals in it
- domestic issue = here: topics that deal with Greenland itself
- in charge of = to be in control of
- independent = free
- infrastructure = important objects in a country or city, like roads, schools, bridges, hospitals etc..
- in place = to exist; be in use
- major = very important
- melt = when ice turns into water
- natural resources = things that exist in nature and are used by people, like oil, gas, trees etc..
- occupy = to enter a country with an army and tale control of it
- operate = here: work
- presence = here: to be in a place and work there
- prevent = stop
- rare earth minerals = minerals that only occur in certain places; there are very few of them around the world
- recently = a short time ago
- remain = stay
- rule = govern
- semi-autonomous = here: to be able to control and decide certain things on its own
- shipping lane = route where ships travel
- strategic = very important for defence
- valuable = worth a lot