The U.S. is extending $12.1 million in economic aid to Greenland and setting up a consulate in the Danish territory this summer, looking to counter the growing presence of China and Russia in the Arctic.
The package, revealed by the State Department on Thursday, comes as a response to Russia’s military buildup in the region and China’s investment in the Arctic’s natural resources and shipping routes.
Washington is “in the process of adjusting our Arctic policy,” a senior State Department official told reporters on a briefing call. “And it’s a change that’s driven by the desire of Russia and the People’s Republic of China to challenge the United States and the West.”
The official described China’s claim to be a “near-Arctic state” and its intention to play a more active role in Arctic governance as “disconcerting,” citing Beijing’s expansionist behavior in the South China Sea.
China has tried to “wiggle their way into Greenland in unhelpful ways by acquiring critical infrastructure that would be problematic for the United States and our NATO allies and, of course, the Kingdom of Denmark,” the official asserted.
U.S. President Donald Trump last year expressed interest in the idea of buying the autonomous Danish territory, a notion dismissed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as “absurd.”
Though the financial package was embraced as good news by Greenland’s leader and the Danish foreign minister, the American effort to build an alliance with the territory also has sparked an outcry in Denmark, with members of its parliament calling the financial aid “reprehensible” and saying the move “crossed the line.”
Responding to such criticisms Thursday, the State Department official said, “I’m not sure what everyone is all worked up about or why people are upset.”
Last year, the U.S. urged the Faroe Islands — another Danish territory — not to use equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies in its 5G network.
Danish newspaper Berlingske reported that China’s ambassador to Denmark offered to broker a free trade agreement with the Faroe Islands if Huawei won the 5G network assignment. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson denied that Beijing has applied any pressure on the territory.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned Icelanders about Huawei on his visit to the Nordic country last year. Iceland was the first European nation to sign a free trade agreement with Beijing, which went into effect in 2014.
“[T]here’s no question that China is becoming more active in the Arctic region, both economically and strategically,” Pence said at a press gaggle in Reykjavik last fall. “So now is the time for us to strengthen our alliance, to strengthen our cooperation for security and [reject] the Belt and Road Initiative, as Iceland did recently.”
Source: Nikkei Asia
