The Global Story: The fight for the Arctic
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Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson with your weekly bonus from The Global Story, which brings you a single story with depth and insight from the BBC's best journalists. There's a new episode every weekday. Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your pods and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Here's my colleague Katya Adler.
During Donald Trump's first time in office, when he said he wanted to acquire Greenland, many dismissed this as hyperbole, a nonsense even. But now, days away from taking office a second time, he seems on an expansionist role, taunting Canada, it should become the USA's 51st state, that he wants America to reacquire the Panama Canal and insisting that Greenland must become a US property for strategic security, he said.
People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting the free world.
Greenland, the biggest island in the world, is an autonomous Danish territory, rich in oil, gas reserves and other natural resources like zinc, gold and copper. It sits between the US and Russia and is already home to a US military base. Its geostrategic significance is very clear. It's also hugely important in terms of climate conversations and its melting ice is also opening up new profitable maritime trade routes, a development catching the attention of countries further afield, like China. With all these competing interests, could we be looking at a brewing cold war in the Arctic, or as some are calling it, an ice war? It made headlines all over the world this week. Donald Trump refused to rule out the use of military force or economic coercion against NATO ally Denmark to wrest control of Greenland. And as he was doing that, his son popped over to the territory he claimed for an innocent tourist visit.
Just here as tourists, but just really excited to be here. Awesome country. The scenery coming in was just spectacular.
But to those in the know, Arctic security and the battle for influence there has been a growing concern for a number of years. Mr. Trump is certainly not the only one with a keen interest there. Conveniently, before he returned his focus to Greenland, here on The Global Story, we were already preparing an episode for you on the role of China and Russia in the Arctic. I sat down with the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale and Tim Marshall, journalist and author of Prisoners of Geography and The Future of Geography. Let's start with some basic geography, Tim. Which countries are Arctic countries? So when we're talking about the Arctic Circle.
We tend to look at a map and there it is up at the top of the map. A much better map to understand the geography of it is looking top down onto it as that circle. And then you see those countries coastlines on the rim of the ocean itself. So more than half of the coastline is Russian. And then there's land in parts of Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway. Even the circle comes down into parts of Sweden. And of course, America with the Alaska part of it.
Not everyone gets a chance to go to the Arctic and experience the conditions there. But both of you have. Jonathan, I think you've been to every part of the Arctic. Is that right?
No, I haven't been to the Russian bit, which is probably the most interesting bit. But I've been to the Norwegian part of the Arctic, the Finnish part of the Arctic. I've also been to Alaska, where the US has some military bases, missile defence systems based there.
First threat of the system now showing impact location of Chicago. We are engaging at this time.
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