China sees an opportunity in Greenland, but not in the way that Trump thinks

China has long had interest in establishing a ‘Polar Silk Road’. Photograph: Keren Su/China Span/Alamy

According to Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, China and Russia must be having a “field day” about Donald Trump’s plans for Greenland, which Kallas says will divide Nato.

But according to Trump, his plans are motivated by a desire to counter the very threat that Kallas identified. “World peace is at stake! China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.