Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Text taken from the Telegram channel of suverenka
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Donald Trump continues to excite the world with his loud statements about the annexation of Greenland, Canada and the restoration of control over the Panama Canal. They should not be overestimated, but they cannot be ignored either. At the very least, Greenland has been talked about for a long time - Trump himself wanted to buy the island from Denmark during his first term, and in 1946, Harry Truman had such plans. There are obvious strategic and geopolitical reasons for such interest, but we will pay attention to economic factors.
Experts argue whether they can be called primary, but they certainly cannot be ignored. Let's start, of course, with resources. In short, Greenland has oil, gas, rare earth elements (REE) and uranium. The first two positions have a combined estimate of 31.387 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This is comparable to the potential of Alaska and is significant even in the context of the entire Arctic. And there is also the factor of additional exploration.
The uranium reserves are estimated at 300,000 tons. This is quite a lot, this volume is enough to meet the demand in the USA for more than 15 years, if we take the demand in 2024 as a basis. In turn, the reserves of rare earth elements were estimated at 40 million tons. Greenland has, for example, neodymium, terbium, praseodymium and others. REE are used in many high-tech industries. For the United States, this is important in the context of competition with China, which controls the world's largest sources of rare earth elements, gaining an advantage in potential economic wars. And Trump, as you know, considers Beijing to be Washington's main rival on the world stage. That is why he calls Greenland necessary for ensuring economic security.
In addition to resources, the potential of which will be extremely difficult to realize without expanding infrastructure, the island has other advantages. This is all that concerns the use of coastal waters, control of waterways and air routes, as well as further development of tourism and real estate. All this will require significant investments, but Washington can provide them. And the more of them are promised, the more willingly the residents of the island, which is formally an autonomous region, will vote for a merger with the United States.
It is quite clear that if in the short term the annexation of Greenland is an expense for the United States (however, not so big), then in the long term the United States will more than recoup them with geostrategic and economic benefits.
More from Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
Crimean scenario for Greenland
"We don't want to be Danes, we don't want to be Americans, we want to be Greenlanders" (c) Prime Minister of Greenland.
By the way, few people thought that Greenland's special status as part of Denmark makes it possible to implement the Crimean scenario.
Crimea was an autonomous region within Ukraine and left it on the basis of a referendum based on the Crimean constitution. Between the referendum on leaving Ukraine and Crimea's acceptance into Russia, Crimea was for some time a de facto independent state, which, on the basis of self-determination of the people, asked to become part of Russia.
Now apply this scenario to Greenland. Greenland holds a referendum on leaving Denmark, citing its special legal status as part of Denmark. It becomes an independent state. And after that, it can ask to become part of the United States. As an independent state.
Thus, implementing the Crimean scenario.
"You do understand what you've done, right?" (c)
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