By Andrew Gray
NUUK, Sept 6 (Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to unveil on Monday a boost in EU investments in Greenland and closer political ties with the Danish Arctic territory, which Donald Trump has insisted should belong to the United States.
Von der Leyen arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a two-day visit serving as a show of support for the governments of Greenland and Denmark, which have strongly rebuffed Trump’s campaign to annex the world’s largest island.
The head of the 27-nation European Union’s executive body, von der Leyen is expected to unveil plans to invest in sectors including critical minerals, satellite communications and renewable energy in Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Danish realm.
On Sunday in Nuuk, the capital, von der Leyen said the package would be “substantial” but gave no details. Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen said his country wanted to build on its “close friendship and good partnership” with the EU.
Von der Leyen’s visit reflects the increasing geopolitical importance of the Arctic to major powers, such as the United States, Russia, China and Europe, as melting ice opens new shipping routes to make the region’s mineral wealth more accessible.
“Greenland’s stunning landscapes and natural beauty will stay with me for a long time. But so will the visible scars of climate change on the ice sheet,” von der Leyen posted on X after a boat trip under clear blue skies in a fjord scattered with chunks of ice.
“As the ice melts, a new reality is taking shape.”
TRUMP’S PUSH TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND SPARKED CRISIS
Trump, the U.S. president, sparked a crisis in U.S.-European ties and turmoil within the transatlantic NATO military alliance this year when he stepped up his demands for the U.S. to control Greenland, arguing that fellow NATO member Denmark could not defend it.
European officials stressed Greenland is part of NATO territory, meaning it is covered by the alliance’s mutual defence pact, and that the U.S. already has the right to increase its military presence there under a longstanding treaty.
Tensions lowered after Trump and NATO boss Mark Rutte agreed in Davos in January that the United States, Denmark and Greenland would begin talks to resolve their differences and NATO would step up its role in Arctic security.
However, the trilateral talks have yet to yield an agreement and, at a NATO summit in Turkey in July, Trump restated his insistence that the U.S. should control Greenland.
While Denmark is a member of the EU, Greenland left the bloc in 1985. But its people, as Danish citizens, are also citizens of the EU.
The EU has long provided funding to Greenland, mainly to pay for fishing rights and support its education system. The package to be announced by von der Leyen will represent not only a big increase in funding but a broadening of the sectors that will receive EU cash, according to EU officials.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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