The acquisition of a also partial control over Greenlandtoday is not for the United States, a “Boutade” of President Trump. It is almost an obligation. At the game they are not alone and especially not priority the oil resources and the gas deposits of the largest island in the world (whose citizens are today to vote), as much as the control of that arctic route that would contain in sun 8,000 nautical miles the journey of ships from China to Europe, against 13,000 miles Which must travel today by crossing the high risk area of the Suez canal, not to mention the Circumnavigation of Africa which extends the transit time of at least 12 days compared to the Suez shortcut. Not to mention the risk of an impending Chinese and Russian military presence on the north of the American continent.
For years the arctic route, significantly also called the Russian route, has been the subject of academic discussions, but the global warming in place and the dissolution of the ice could soon make reality what seemed to be science fiction: at least one of the three main arctic routes including the one that passes through the well -known transition to the north west, could become usable for 12 months a year. And the United States on this commercial theater that threatens to revolutionize the geography of world maritime trafficking, starting from the containers, denounce a fatal delay resulting from a decades -nail underestimation. Just think that The American fleet of navigy ships in the Arctic consists of five units, also taking into account a 50-year-old ice-break. Canada has also invested little or nothing on its Arctic coast where there are no ports capable of hosting Portacontainer ships, and where (as happens in the US Alaska) the railway and road connections are practically non -existent.
The Arctic approach of Russia and China has been very different in recent years. Moscow, which has a fleet of 50 breasts and which is therefore already able to organize convoys today, has been investing for years now in its ports. In the territory of Krasnoyarsk, the ports existing in the Arctic are in the modernization phase and two new ports are in the advanced construction phase at the mouth of the Yenisei river. Starting next year, navigation along the entire route of the North Sea will become annual. Ice class merchant ships will be able to navigate through the eastern sector also in winter and in the future it is expected to build railway lines towards the Russian ports of the Arctic Ocean.
For its part the China, blocked in the south its silk route, designs a road of arctic silk which would be by means of all the Choke Points at risk for maritime navigation.
The three routes through the ice
The arctic route is made up of numerous steps. The transpolar route (TSR), is the one that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean passing through the Arctic glacial Sea: it is the most impractical route due to the ice that cover the North Pole.
So the Northwest transitionwhich connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean passing next to Canada and Alaska.
Finally the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Also known as the north-east transition, which puts the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean in communication extending for most of its length next to the Russian coast: it connects the northernmost parts of the North Sea and reaches the sea of the Ciukci and the Bering Strait.
And many have forgotten that Ten years ago, already President Obama had claimed a US leadership on the Arctic routes, that every day more they connote themselves as the keystone of the new commercial balances in the world. Therefore, no ranting of the current tenant of the White House which has already hit the goal of Americanizing the Panama channel and that to have a control over the actual Greenland, ai aircraft, moored in the Arctic sea is probably willing to put an avalanche of dollars on the plate.
About 18 months ago the White House (still inhabited by Biden) had published A dossier on the Arctic strategy that had pushed the local government of Nuk to erase the project to have China build three airports. Operation that confirmed to analysts the double vocation of Russia and China, to monopolize a strategic commercial route but at the same time to put the arctic coasts of the American continent in military check, with an option on the mining and energy resources of Greenland.
The three dates not to be forgotten
Today in Greenland we vote, with a growing desire for independence and perhaps to monetize the strategic role that global warming and the dissolution of the ice has given to the green island. With three dates to be kept by heart.
- October 18, 1867. The United States acquire the territory of Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars ($ 4 per km2). And from January 3, 1959 Alaska becomes in all respects the 49th state of the USA. The territories also conquer themselves by paying.
- Summer 2015. The then president of the United States, Barack Obama summons to Anchoral a meeting in which all the potential stakeholders, ministers of other governments, scientists, exponents of the economy interested in the development of the Arctic Region participate: after decades of total disinterest, the president is Tranchant: the America claims his leadership, to which he abdicated for too long, on these regions.
- October 28, 2024. The new airport capable of welcoming long ranging flights and American Airlines announces two flights per week from New York during the summer is officially inaugurated in Nuk, the capital of Greenland.
Even if covered for about 80% from the ice, it is estimated that in Greenland there can be up to 13% of world oil resources and 30% of gas and according to a 2023 EU study, twenty -five of the 34 minerals found in Greenland They were identified as critical raw materials.
TheVermilion.com is also on WhatsApp. Simply click here to register for the channel and always be updated (free).