Greenland, the hotspot in the global race for Arctic control

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Trump continues to push for the annexation of the vast Danish island, aiming to counter the increasing influence of Russia and China in the region

Since 1943, the U.S. Armed Forces have operated the Pituffik military base in northwest Greenland, now under the command of the U.S. Space Force, a military branch created by Trump in 2019. Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, explains that this base — which houses an early warning system for detecting and tracking intercontinental missiles — is of crucial strategic importance to Washington. “If Russia or China were to attack the U.S. with nuclear ballistic missiles, they would cross the North Pole, and Pituffik’s radars would be essential in preventing impact,” he says.