Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Greenland is making moves towards independence. A two-year commission underway.

Independence Movement Picks Up Steam

The Wall Street Journal reports Trump’s Talk of Buying Greenland Energizes Island’s Independence Movement

Greenland is a self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Danish government says it is willing to grant Greenland full independence if there is local support, and recent Greenlandic elections and polls indicate there is.

Trump’s recent threat of a trade war with Denmark is changing the negotiating dynamic, says Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. The Danish government now might be more open to agreeing a divorce deal that includes some continued payments to ease Greenland’s path to independence, he says. “My prognosis is that the Danish government will accept it in the next few years,” he says. An independent Greenland would then be free to forge its own security or economic ties with the U.S., Denmark or anyone else.

In April, Greenland goes to the polls in a vote that could fire the starter gun on independence for the territory of 57,000 people. The last time elections were held, pro-independence parties got 80% of the vote.

The prime minister of Greenland made a New Year’s address to the nation saying that a draft constitution for the country has been prepared and that the independence process should be triggered.

“It is now time to take the next step for our country,” Múte Egede said. “Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation—which we can describe as the shackles of the colonial era—and move on.” 

A 2009 Danish law lays out how Greenland can take the first step in the process: It must notify the Danish government, the two must negotiate a divorce agreement and the deal must then be ratified by a referendum in Greenland. The Greenlandic government has commissioned legal experts to work out the details of how step one would work with a two- year deadline.

Pro-independence campaigners in Greenland would like to adopt a “free association” model, similar to the relationship between the Marshall Islands and the U.S. or the Cook Islands and New Zealand. 

Some of Trump’s advisers have privately acknowledged a sale of Greenland is unlikely, but an expansion of U.S. military and financial presence on the island is a possibility. A poll in 2021 showed that 69% of Greenlanders favored more cooperation with the U.S., compared with 39% who favored tighter cooperation with China.

Trump’s Offer to Buy Greenland

Some people thought I was crazy when I posted Trump’s Offer to Buy Greenland Is Not as Preposterous as it Sounds

A free association model may be more likely, but don’t rule out an outright purchase.

There are only about 59,000 Greenland citizens. I proposed an offer of $2 million each. That would only be $118 billion.

Greenland would be cheap at double the price if I am correct about the mineral deposits.

Critical Materials Risk Assessment

Our Department of Energy has placed some of the rare earth minerals we need for weapons systems, wind turbines, batteries, semiconductors, cell phones, and aircraft on a critical materials list.

Nearly all of them are mined or refined in China.

Please consider a Critical Materials Risk Assessment by the US Department of Energy

If Trump increases tariffs on China by 60 percent, China could easily shut down rare earth exports. I have been warning about this for years

China controls more than 80% of the world’s supply of tungsten and about 90% of global magnesium production

China has an effective monopoly over processing major heavy rare earths – Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb), and Light Rare Earths – Neodymium (Nd) and Praseodymium (Pr).  

China Halts Rare Earth Exports

On December 3, I commented China Halts Rare Exports Used by US Technology Companies and the Military

This is China’s advance salvo at Trump tariffs. It comes one day after the Biden administration expanded curbs on the sale of advanced American technology to China.

The US gets rare earths from allies who get them from China. But don’t rule out the possibility that China shuts off all access.