GREENLAND is not green; it has a polar climate and over 85 per cent of its land area is permanent ice-sheet. Geopolitically, it is part of Europe, falling under the Kingdom of Denmark, but, geographically, Greenland is part of the North American continent. United States President Donald Trump, in one of his many eye-opening remarks, has talked about `buying` Greenland.

`I think Greenland we will get because it has to do with freedom of the world ... It has nothing to do with the United States other than that we are the one that can provide the freedom. They [Denmark and Greenland] can`t,` Trump told a news briefing.

What makes the US interested in Greenland is not the `freedom of the world` it is the possibility of energy reserves.

Greenland`s continental shelf, which is the area of seabed around a large land mass where the sea is relatively shallow, is as good as is the case with the Middle East. The continental shelf indicates that there is a reasonable chance of finding oil and natural gas.

The Persian continental shelf is super rich in oil and gas deposits, whereas Greenland is the next frontier related to oil and gas exploration in North America, as the continent has been facing depletion in its oil and gas reserves.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), where legal states are bordered by legal continental shelves that are wider than 200 nautical miles, they are entitled to legally claim the continental shelf as a maritime zone extending up to 350 nautical miles.

Other maritime zones are internal waters, territorial seas, contiguous zones and exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles. In shallow, semi-enclosed seas, for example, the Persian Gulf, where the claims of coastal states overlap, median and dividing lines have to be agreed upon.

The best example in the world is themedian line between Iran and Qatar. The world`s largest natural gas field North Dome or South Pars straddles the international maritime boundary between Iran and Qatar. Consequently, the world`s largest natural gas field is divided between the two countries.

The economic and political significance of the continental shelf is of recent origin, dating from the time when exploitation of seabed resources, other than fisheries, like oil and gas exploration, became an economically feasible prospect.

The Antarctic mainland and its ice-sheet representaboutthree quarters ofthe world`s store of freshwater. After Australia, Antarctica is the second smallest continent.

Its ice-sheet is an extensive area of land ice, which may at its margins grade into sea-ice. Only two ice-sheets exist at present; Antarctica and Greenland.

Geopolitics is an alternative term for the aspect of political geography that emphasises the geographical relationship of sovereign states. In Germany before World War II, it was more associated with the study of geographical factors in political systems and was developed in order to justify the expansionist policies of pre-war Germany.

Today, the US has been using the same reasoning to justify its expansionist policies related to Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal. Since Greenland is the largest island in the world, it has the longest fiord coastline in the island category.

Canada has the longest coastline followed by Indonesia, Russia and Greenland.

The world knows what the US is up to.

Kamran Khan Karachi