A look at Greenland
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers at the White House on Wednesday, the day after Greenland’s prime minister said his nation would prefer to remain part of Denmark.
A top Danish official said Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains with President Donald Trump after holding highly anticipated White House talks with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as Trump continues to call for a U.S. takeover of the semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
The president did not take part in Wednesday’s meeting. In an Oval Office exchange with reporters following the talks, he reiterated his commitment to acquiring the territory. “We need Greenland for national security,” Trump said. He added: “We’ll see how it all works out. I think something will work out.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, “It is in everybody’s interest — even though we disagree — that we agree to try to explore whether it is doable to accommodate some of the concerns while at the same time respecting the integrity of the Danish kingdom’s territory and the self-determination of the Greenlandic people.”
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is about 80% ice capped. The Inuit came to Greenland from North America in a series of migrations that stretched from 2500 B.C. to the 11th century. Vikings reached the island in the 10th century from Iceland; Danish colonization began in the 18th century, and Greenland became part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953.
It joined the European Community (now the EU) with Denmark in 1973 but withdrew in 1985 over a dispute centered on stringent fishing quotas. Greenland remains a member of the EU’s Overseas Countries and Territories Association.
The Danish parliament granted Greenland home rule in 1979; the law went into effect the following year. Greenland voted in favor of self-government in 2008 and acquired greater responsibility for internal affairs when the Act on Greenland Self-Government was signed into law in 2009. The Kingdom of Denmark, however, continues to exercise control over several policy areas on behalf of Greenland, including foreign affairs, security,and financial policy, in consultation with Greenland’s Self-Rule Government.
The U.S. protected it
Following the Nazi German occupation of Denmark in World War II, Denmark signed an agreement with the U.S. to keep control of the Greenlandic territory in allied hands. The allies feared that Germany could use Greenland as a base of operations to conduct offensive attacks on Washington, D.C. via bombing and submarine attacks.
By the end of war, the U.S. had 17 facilities. After the war Greenland went back under Danish control.
Northernmost U.S. base
The U.S. in the Cold War, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty agreed to assist Greenland. Thule Air Force Base, which is now Pituffik Space Base, has been under U.S. operation since the 1950s.
Under the agreement, the Danish national flag must be flown at the base but the U.S. is allowed to fly its own flag alongside it.During the second Trump administration, Col. Susannah Meyers, the base commander, said Trump’s threats against Greenland “are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” leading her to be fired by Trump.
Other notable facts
Population total: 57,751 (2024 est.) Close to one-quarter of the population lives in the capital, Nuuk
Languages: Greenlandic, Danish, English
Natural resources: coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, molybdenum, diamonds, gold, platinum, niobium, tantalite, uranium, fish, seals, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas
Named by Norse navigator Erik Thorvaldsson (Erik the Red) in A.D. 985 to attract settlers to the island; the original Greenlandic name, Kalaallit Nunaat, means “land of the people.”
Northeast Greenland National Park (Kalaallit Nunaanni Nuna Eqqissisimatitaq) is about 46% of the island, which makes it the largest national park in the world and also the most northerly.
U.S. News and World Report ranks Denmark as the No. 1 country in the world for quality of life. In addition to Greenland, Denmark also claims the Faroe Islands which are just east of Iceland.
The movie
“Greenland” is a 2020 American apocalyptic survival disaster film where a comet cluster destroys the Earth. The title comes from a safe haven of bunkers located in Greenland. The U.S. did have bunkers there. Camp Century, also known as the “city under the ice,” is a relic of the Cold War. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the military base in 1959 by cutting a network of tunnels within the near-surface layer of the ice sheet.
You can learn more about Camp Century at the NASA site here.
Greenland flag description: two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red, with a large disk set slightly to the left; the top half of the disk is red, and the bottom is white.
Flag meaning: the design represents the sun reflecting off a field of ice; the colors are the same as the Danish flag and symbolize Greenland’s links to the Kingdom of Denmark.
The flag of Denmark is red with a white Nordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of the flag and that the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.
Sources: AFP News Service, The Associated Press, Reuters, CIA Factbook, NASA
Hence then, the article about here are a few things you may not know about greenland was published today ( ) and is available on Los Angeles Daily News ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Here are a few things you may not know about Greenland )
Also on site :