The debate over the Arctic is becoming hotter than ever, as US President Donald Trump continues to insist that Greenland become part of the United States.
But while Trump's demands for the US to take control of territory belonging to one of its closest and most trusted allies have baffled the world, the race for the Arctic has been going on for decades.
In this regard, CNN writes that there is no doubt that Moscow has had a dominant presence in the Arctic region, reports the Telegraph.
It controls approximately half of the land and half of the maritime exclusive economic zone north of the Arctic Circle.
Two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Arctic region live in Russia.
And while the Arctic makes up only a small part of the global economy - about 0.4% according to the Arctic Council, the forum representing Arctic states - Russia controls two-thirds of the region's GDP.
Russia's military power in the Arctic
Russia has been expanding its military presence in the Arctic for decades, investing in new and existing facilities in the region.
According to the Simons Foundation, a Canadian non-profit organization that monitors Arctic security and nuclear disarmament, there are 66 military outposts and hundreds of other installations and defensive points within the wider Arctic region.
According to publicly available data and research by the Simons Foundation, 30 are in Russia and 36 in NATO countries with Arctic territory: 15 in Norway - including a British base - eight in the United States, nine in Canada, three in Greenland and one in Iceland.
And while not all bases are created equal — experts say Russia currently cannot match NATO's military capabilities — the scale of Russia's military presence, and the pace at which Moscow has expanded it in recent years, is a major concern.
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK-based defence think tank, said that Russia has in recent years invested a significant amount of money and made a number of efforts in modernising its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, which form the "backbone" of its military power in the Arctic.
As it continues to fight in Ukraine, Russia has also improved its capabilities in radar, drones, and missiles.
But the panorama was not always so dangerous.
For years after the end of the Cold War, the Arctic was one of the areas where it seemed like Russia and Western countries "could do business together."
The Arctic Council, established in 1996, sought to bring Russia closer to the seven other Arctic countries and allow for closer cooperation on issues such as biodiversity, climate and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.
For a time, there was also an attempt to cooperate in the security field, with Russia participating in two high-level meetings of the Arctic Chiefs of Defense Forum before being expelled due to the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Most forms of cooperation have since been suspended, with relations between the West and Moscow reaching a new post-Cold War low after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO in 2023 and 2024 has effectively divided the Arctic region into two roughly equal halves: one controlled by Russia and the other by NATO.
Trump has repeatedly said that the US "needs" Greenland for national security reasons, pointing to Russian and Chinese ambitions in the Arctic.
He has argued that Denmark, which has sovereignty over the world's largest island, is not strong enough to protect it from the threats posed by both countries.
While not an Arctic country, China has not hidden its interest in the region.
The country declared itself a "near-Arctic state" in 2018 and outlined a "polar silk road" initiative for ships in the Arctic.
In 2024, China and Russia launched a joint patrol in the Arctic, part of a broader cooperation between the two.
Opening new roads
But security is not the only reason why interest in the Arctic is growing.
The region is transforming faster than any other area of the world as the climate crisis deepens, warming about four times faster than the global average.
Sea ice is shrinking at a rapid pace. But while scientists warn that this could have hugely damaging consequences for the natural world and the livelihoods of the people who rely on it, many argue that melting sea ice could also open up a huge economic opportunity in terms of mining and shipping.
Two shipping lanes that were virtually unsustainable just two decades ago are now opening up due to dramatic ice melt - although researchers and environmental watchdogs have warned that sending fleets of ships through this pristine, remote and dangerous environment is an ecological and human disaster waiting to happen.
The Northern Sea Route, which runs along the northern Russian coast, and the Northwest Passage, which hugs the northern coast of North America, have been virtually ice-free during the height of summer.
The Northern Sea Route cuts the sailing time between Asia and Europe to about two weeks, roughly half the time it takes via the traditional Suez Canal route.
While parts of the route were used by Russia during Soviet times to reach and supply distant countries, the challenges it presented meant it was largely ignored as an option for international maritime transport.
This changed in the early 2010s when the crossing became more accessible and since then the number of trips through it has increased from a small number each year to around 100.
Russia has been increasing use of the route since 2022, using it to transport oil and gas to China after sanctions cut it off from its previous European customers.
Similarly, the Northwest Passage has also become more viable, with the number of direct sailings increasing from a few per year in the early 2000s to up to 41 in 2023.
A third, central route that would take ships directly through the North Pole could also become possible in the future, although the level of ice melting that would be necessary for this would have alarming consequences, accelerating global warming, increasing weather extremes and destroying precious ecosystems in the area.
Russia has been increasing use of the route since 2022, using it to transport oil and gas to China after sanctions cut it off from its previous European customers.
Similarly, the Northwest Passage has also become more viable, with the number of direct sailings increasing from a few per year in the early 2000s to up to 41 in 2023.
A third, central route that would take ships directly through the North Pole could also become possible in the future, although the level of ice melting that would be necessary for this would have alarming consequences, accelerating global warming, increasing weather extremes and destroying precious ecosystems in the area.
As for mining, there is a possibility that melting ice could expose land that was previously impossible to exploit.
Greenland in particular could be a hotspot for coal, copper, gold, rare earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
However, researchers say it would be extremely difficult and costly to extract Greenland's minerals because many of the island's mineral deposits are in remote areas above the Arctic Circle, where there is a mile-thick layer of polar ice and darkness reigns for most of the year.
The idea that these resources could be easily exploited for the benefit of the US was described to CNN as "completely crazy" by Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow at the Arctic Institute.
While Trump has recently focused on the security aspects of Greenland, his former national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News in 2024 that the administration's focus on Greenland was "around critical minerals" and "natural resources." /Telegrafi/
