Meet the Aussie who helped give Trump ideas about Greenland
Washington | The Australian geologist who briefed the White House on Greenland days before Donald Trump announced his first-term attempt to buy the Danish territory says the president-elect’s latest gambit is aimed at shaking up politics and breaking China’s stranglehold on critical minerals.
Trump on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) refused to rule out using military force to take control of the enormous, resource-rich island, which he said had become crucial for America’s national security.
Greg Barnes: “The first time Trump was prepared to look like an idiot, but what was really going on was something totally different, and it’s the same with this move at the moment.” Trevor Collens
Perth-based Greg Barnes, 76, who has been scouring the island since 1992, has a mineral holding called Tanbreez in southern Greenland that sits atop the world’s second-biggest rare earth deposit.
He said Trump’s first attempt at buying Greenland had more to do with shaking up the island’s bureaucracy.
“The bureaucracy is still there in Greenland and everyone there will tell you that that is the major problem. They’re very rigid, and that is the word used by the [US] State Department,” Mr Barnes, who was a drinking friend of disgraced Perth businessman Alan Bond, told The Australian Financial Review.
“The bureaucrats there are Danes, not Inuits. They go to university in Denmark, they come out left wing and can’t get a job … so they go to Greenland to work in the public service,” he said.
Mr Barnes said it was difficult to know what sort of deal Trump was seeking this time, but it was probably related to the politics of critical minerals and helping America combat China’s dominance in that area.
“The first time Trump was prepared to look like an idiot, but what was really going on was something totally different, and it’s the same with this move at the moment,” he said.
‘We need it for national security’
The chance of the island becoming independent of Denmark and then vulnerable to Beijing’s influence was still low, Mr Barnes said, but it was something that Trump had canvassed.
Trump said on Tuesday: “The people are going to probably vote for independence. People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to [Greenland].”
If they did, he said, they should “give it up” because “we need it for national security”.
China has tried several times to invest in Greenland, including through a government-owned company that wanted to buy an abandoned naval base on the island and a government-run university trying to build research infrastructure.
The Chinese have also shown interest in Mr Barnes’ 15-square-kilometre rare earths deposit.
“Some Chinese have come to the site to inspect it. I have had them approach me trying to do a deal. China already has the monopoly on rare earths. These deposits would undercut the Chinese by [a] long shot,” he said.
Trump alluded to China’s interests on Tuesday. “I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don’t even need binoculars. You look outside of [Greenland]. You have China ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”
Mr Barnes played down his role in awakening Trump’s initial interest in Greenland through a briefing to department heads in 2019.
The New York Times has since reported that the initial idea came from cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder, who has known Trump since college.
“A friend of mine, a really, really experienced businessman, thinks we can get Greenland,” Trump is said to have told his national security adviser.
Secret talks
This led to a special team being assigned to evaluate the prospects, resulting in a memo that laid out various options, including a lease proposal akin to a New York real estate deal.
John Bolton, the then-national security adviser, assigned his aide Fiona Hill to assemble a small team to brainstorm ideas. They engaged in secret talks with Denmark’s ambassador and produced an options memo.
Mr Bolton, concerned about expanding Chinese influence in the Arctic, thought that an increased American presence in Greenland made sense, but that an outright purchase was not feasible.
Mr Barnes, who will be visiting Washington later this month, said his first meeting with US government officials in 2019 was meant to be 30 minutes long, but lasted three hours.
“They wanted to find out about the politics in Greenland and what Tanbreez was – and its potential monopoly mine in the rare earth market,” he said.
“The ones who asked the hardest questions was the United States Geological Survey guys and the State Department,” he said.
