Trump demands power to veto Greenland deals with China

Donald Trump has demanded a clause that would amount to a “veto” over any future Chinese or Russian investments in Greenland, The Telegraph can report.

Diplomatic sources have revealed that preventing Beijing from accessingthe substantial mineral reserves buried deep beneath the ice has become a key objective for the Trump administration in talks over the island.

Officials from the United States, Greenland and Denmark have been locked in secret negotiations over a deal that satisfies the US president’s desire to control the territory.

The talks were designed to provide Mr Trump with an off-ramp to his threats of a military takeover of the Arctic island, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

It is understood that the US sees the minerals buried deep under the island’s ice sheets as a strategic reserve in case of a war with China.

Beijing has a stranglehold over the materials crucial for the hi-tech production of everything from electric cars to missiles, radar systems and fighter jets.

Chinese mines account for around 70 per cent of the global supply of rare earths, but more crucially, the Asian superpower controls 90 per cent of the world’s processing capacity.

It is feared that Xi Jinping, China’s president, could use the bottleneck to his advantage should Beijing and Washington find themselves at war over Taiwan.

One source close to the negotiations over Greenland said the Trump administration was using these concerns over China as an excuse to gain a greater foothold in Greenland.

Another said the US would only attempt to extract much of the oil, uranium, rare earths and other critical minerals beneath the ice in the event that Beijing puts a squeeze on global supplies.

The US, while largely unaffected by the Iranian chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, has become more aware of the impact a single country can have on international trade.

In the past decade, Chinese firms have invested in a series of mining projects in Greenland, but none has ever been considered a major success.

The veto powers demanded by Washington would stop firms linked to Beijing from brokering infrastructure or resource deals on the island’s territory.

Sources have suggested the US’s demand is being hotly contested because it infringes on the Greenlandic government’s sovereignty.

US negotiators insisted on a similar clause in a trade deal with Britain, which allows Washington to flag concerns about potential Chinese takeovers.

In the past four months, negotiators have met around five times to discuss an expansion of America’s military presence on the island, which Mr Trump says is crucial to national security.

The Trump administration is pushing to open at least three new bases on Greenland by expanding a 1951 deal signed between Washington and Copenhagen, which permitted US forces free access and the right to build in designated defence zones.

His officials had hoped to have the new bases designated as “Sovereign Base Areas”, mimicking the status of Britain’s military sites on Cyprus.

But Danish and Greenlandic officials rebuffed this plan as a major breach of the island’s sovereignty.

Mr Trump is expected to become more focused on the negotiations as his attention to the Iran war seemingly winds down.

His demands to keep China and Russia away from Greenland’s mineral wealth will only be exacerbated by his state visit to Beijing.

Mr Trump has moved the competition for critical minerals from the margins of policy to the heart of great power rivalry.

Beijing’s controls continue to tightly restrict exports of certain rare earths despite a deal at October’s Busan summit, where the White House said China committed to “effectively eliminate” all current and proposed critical mineral export controls.

After Mr Xi and Mr Trump came face to face for a two-day summit in Beijing, the White House said China had agreed to address concerns about rare earth shortages.

One critical mineral mentioned for the first time by the White House is indium, which plays a key role in the upstream and downstream semiconductor supply chain and has been on a Chinese export control list since February 2025.

Its compound indium phosphide is crucial for making ⁠next-generation photonic chips that use light instead of electricity to process data, as well as high-speed optical lasers used in optical fibre and 6G networks. Another compound, indium tin oxide, is used to make LED screens in consumer electronics.

Shortages of yttrium – part of a heat-protective coating in aircraft engines – and scandium, which is used in chip manufacturing, have severely affected US industry. Companies have lobbied Washington to intervene with Beijing.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]