The United States should purchase Greenland from Denmark because China "understands not only Greenland's geographic importance but also its economic potential," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Monday.
"Greenland is rich in a wide array of mineral deposits, including rare-earth minerals, resources critical to our high-tech and defense industries," Cotton said in an op-ed in The New York Times.
"China currently dominates the market in these minerals and has threatened to withhold them from us to gain leverage in trade negotiations," he argued. "Greenland also possesses untold reserves of oil and natural gas."
Noting that Beijing has unsuccessfully tried to buy an old U.S. Naval base in Greenland in 2016 and to build three airports there two years later, Cotton said that U.S. interests in the island dates back as far as 1867.
"The acquisition of Greenland would secure vital strategic interests for the United States, economically benefit both us and Greenlanders, and would be in keeping with American — and Danish — diplomatic traditions," he said.
Cotton, 42, a first-term senator who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said that "I myself raised the prospect of acquiring Greenland with the Danish ambassador just last year."
He contended that Americans should not dismiss President Donald Trump's suggestion to purchase Greenland because "our nation has much to gain, as do the Danes and Greenlanders.
"While there are short-term obstacles," the senator cautioned, "the same benefits could apply for Greenland today — and the manifest logic of this idea means that its consideration is here to stay."