Trump started the week threatening to impose massive tariffs on EU countries if they didn’t hand over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, to the U.S., but backed down Wednesday after saying he had reached a “framework for a future deal” with Rutte.
But if that deal includes allowing any country other than Greenland to control its minerals, it’s a “no” from Nuuk, the minister said.
The Arctic island is home to enough of some kinds of rare earth elements to cater to a quarter of the world’s demand, along with vast amounts of oil, gas, gold and clean energy metals — but has extracted almost none of them.
Although the exact details of the framework remain unclear, a European official told POLITICO on Thursday it could include an oversight board to supervise the island’s minerals.
Nathanielsen rejected that possibility. “That would amount to giving up sovereignty, that is our jurisdiction, what happens with our minerals,” she said, suggesting the possibility of resolving the issue over Greenland’s resources through multilateral talks.
“I’m not saying there is no deal to be had,” said the Greenlandic politician, adding that the government had “no objections to building up [NATO] capacity in Greenland or monitoring of any kind” and is also open to developing a 2019 mining cooperation agreement with the U.S.