Spooked by ‘friend’ America, Greenland offers its minerals to ‘like-minded’ Europe

Greenland is pitching its minerals and energy in a bid to expand trade with the European Union beyond fisheries, a high-level visit to the Old Continent has revealed.

The overture comes in the wake of media revelations alleging that the United States is stepping up spying on the sparsely populated island, potentially opening another front of pressure on the Nordic territory.

Greenland lures ‘good partner’ EU with mineral wealth

Aiming to secure closer ties with Europe, the government of Greenland is now suggesting that the European Union could exploit its natural resources. Nuuk is approaching Brussels amid persistent encroaching attempts by Washington under President Donald Trump.

“We want to have more bilateral and direct cooperation with the EU,” Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt was quoted by Reuters as stating during a trip to the Belgian capital that included talks with senior European officials.

Motzfeldt wants this relationship to be more visible and highlights her country’s minerals as an area where the two sides can benefit from joint efforts.

“They get some fish from us, and on the other side we have a free market, we can export to the EU without any extra costs,” the diplomat noted in an interview with the European edition of Politico. And then stressed:

“But today, we want to expand our cooperation based on not only fisheries, we want to expand our cooperation on our critical minerals and energy.”

Greenland’s subsoil holds vast amounts of critical minerals, including rare earths. These include uranium and graphite among dozens of resources considered crucial to manufacturing and global supply chains, Politico pointed out in its article.

“That’s what Greenland has” and the world needs in terms of greener future and renewable energy, Motzfeldt elaborated. She views the mineral wealth as a basis for strengthening links with the European Union, with which the Danish autonomous territory is associated.

The foreign minister emphasized:

“Of course, we want to have cooperation with our critical minerals with our like-minded countries, and the EU is a good partner, we like them.”

On Thursday, the Greenlandic diplomat met with Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission. She took the opportunity to invite members of the Union’s executive body to visit the island, insisting all commissioners are “more than welcome.”

HR/VP @kajakallas met with @GreenlandMFA Vivian Motzfeldt this morning.

The EU-Greenland partnership, rooted in common values, will help seize opportunities — from investment and skills to a more diverse economy. pic.twitter.com/c8FokL9G9B

— European External Action Service – EEAS 🇪🇺 (@eu_eeas) May 15, 2025

Motzfeldt lambasts ‘supposed friend’ U.S. over reported spying

Greenland’s location on the map and its mineral riches, coveted by the Trump administration, have upped the geopolitical importance of the island. The latter is a self-governing entity that’s a constituent part of the Kingdom of Denmark, an EU member state.

Greenland was granted home rule in 1979 and opted to leave the European Economic Community (EEC), a predecessor of the EU, in a referendum held in 1985, but it enjoys a special status as one of the European Union’s Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT).

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has insisted that America’s taking ownership of the island is vital to U.S. and international security, highlighting rivalries with Russia and China in the Arctic as a key motive for his position.

A recent report by the Wall Street Journal, unveiling that U.S. intelligence agencies had been ordered to gather information on the island, indicated this episode in Greenland’s history isn’t over.

Commenting on the alleged spying, Motzfeldt stated:

“We’re supposed to be friends. We are allies. Allies don’t do such things. The situation is new to us, and new to the rest of the world, because you don’t do … that to your ally.”

Earlier this year, Trump refused to rule out using military force to establish control over Greenland. He also sent his eldest son and Vice President JD Vance to the island, moves seen as attempts to increase the pressure.

“It is a threat as soon as you start to talk about military occupation,” Vivian Motzfeldt was categorical. “Of course, they can come and visit us … and we have long wished to have more cooperation with the United States … But on a different rhetoric, on a reliable way,” the top diplomat insisted.

At the end of April, the U.S. signed a bilateral agreement with Kyiv that will give Washington access to Ukraine’s natural resources and allow America to participate in the war-torn country’s reconstruction. The “minerals deal” was fast-tracked through the Ukrainian parliament soon after.

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