Greenland

Context:

  • Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that she didn’t believe President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests.
  • She said, Mr. Trump’s comments were “a message to some other big global players more than any hostile claim over these countries.”
  • She identified increased “Chinese protagonism” in the commercially important Panama Canal and resource-rich Greenland as being behind Trump’s warning.
  • Trump said he wouldn’t rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland which he declared to be vital to American national security.
  • Analysts say such rhetoric could embolden America’s enemies by suggesting the U.S. is now OK with countries using force to redraw borders at a time when Russia is pressing forward with its invasion of Ukraine and China is threatening Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.
  • Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.
  • Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

About Greenland:

  • Greenland, the world’s largest island, lying in the North Atlantic Ocean.
  • Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) is noted for its vast tundra and immense glaciers.
  • Although Greenland remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the island’s home-rule government is responsible for most domestic affairs.
  • Greenlandic people call their homeland Kalaallit Nunaat (“Country of the Greenlanders”).
  • They are very strongly admixed with early European immigrant strains.
  • More than one-tenth of the people are Danish, most of them born in Denmark.
  • The capital of Greenland is Nuuk (Godthåb).
  • Two-thirds of the island lies within the Arctic Circle, and the island’s northern extremity extends to within less than 800 km of the North Pole.
  • Greenland is separated from Canada’s Ellesmere Island to the north by only 26 km.
  • The nearest European country is Iceland, lying about 320 km across the Denmark Strait to the southeast.
  • Greenland’s deeply indented coastline is 39,330 km long, a distance roughly equivalent to Earth’s circumference at the Equator.
  • A submarine ridge no deeper than 180 metres connects the island physically with North America.
  • Structurally, Greenland is an extension of the Canadian Shield, the rough plateau of the Canadian North that is made up of hard Precambrian rocks.
  • Greenland’s major physical feature is its massive ice sheet, which is second only to Antarctica’s in size.
  • The climate of Greenland is Arctic, modified only by the slight influence of the Gulf Stream in the southwest.
  • Greenland experiences about two months of midnight sun during the summer.
  • Large areas of the island can be classified as Arctic deserts because of their limited precipitation.
  • The country’s plant life is characterized mainly as tundra vegetation and consists of such plants as sedge and cotton grass.
  • Plantlike lichens also are common.
  • Greenland’s economy has long been based on fishing.
  • Agriculture is possible on about 1 percent of Greenland’s total area, in the southern ice-free regions.
  • Since the 1990s, revenue from tourism has grown significantly.
  • The government, which receives substantial financial aid from Denmark, continues to play a leading role in the economy.
  • Greenland has a population of just 57,000 and wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.
  • It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Government:

  • In 1979 the Danish government granted home rule to Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat).
  • Under this agreement, Greenland remained part of the Danish realm, and each Greenlander was a Danish citizen, enjoying equal rights with all other Danes.
  • Denmark retained control of the island’s constitutional affairs, foreign relations, and defense, while Greenland maintained jurisdiction over economic development, municipal regulations, taxes, education, the social welfare system, cultural affairs, and the state church.
  • Mineral resources were managed jointly by Denmark and Greenland.
  • It was perhaps this last point that inspired Greenlanders to vote overwhelmingly in 2008 to increase their autonomy from Denmark, and Greenland is now officially designated a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark.
  • Under the expanded home rule agreement, which took effect on June 21, 2009, Greenland retained a greater percentage of oil and mineral revenue.
  • It also managed virtually all domestic affairs, including criminal justice, and Greenlandic supplanted Danish as the official language of government.
  • Denmark, in collaboration with Greenlandic political leaders, continued to manage the island’s foreign relations and defense.

History of Greenland:

  • The Inuit are believed to have crossed to northwest Greenland from North America, using the islands of the Canadian Arctic as stepping-stones, in a series of migrations that stretched from at least 2500 bce to the early 2nd millennium ce.
  • Greenland fell under the protection of the United States during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II and was returned to Denmark in 1945.

 

              

 

                

 

Gulf of Mexico

Context:

  • Mexico’s president rebukes Trump’s vow to rename Gulf of Mexico

News:

  • US President-elect Donald Trump said that he will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America”.

About Gulf of Mexico:

  • Gulf of Mexico, partially landlocked body of water on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent.
  • It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Florida, running between the peninsula of Florida and the island of Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatán Channel, which runs between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba.
  • To the northwest, north, and northeast it is bounded by the southern coast of the United States, while to the west, south, and southeast it is bounded by the east coast of Mexico.
  • The southeastern portion of the gulf is traversed by a riverlike current that becomes the main source of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream; this is the principal current moving oceanic waters through the gulf.
  • The name Gulf of Mexico has been applied to the body of water since at least the late 16th century.

               

 

Z-Morh tunnel

Context:

  • PM to open Z-Morh tunnel, key feature in strategic year-round Kashmir-Ladakh corridor

News:

  • The Z-Morh tunnel is set to become the first major milestone in the effort to build a strategic corridor between Kashmir and Ladakh which is open all through the year, with Prime Minister slated to inaugurate it.

More info:

  • The tunnel, in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, is key to keeping the tourist destination of Sonamarg open for visitors around the year.
  • Earlier, snowfall and avalanches would cut off the tourist spot every winter.

Winter tourism:

  • The tunnel was much needed to have Sonamarg on the winter tourism map of Kashmir.
  • There is a need to open up new winter destinations in Kashmir given the growing footfall.
  • It would be safe to drive to Sonamarg in winters now.
  • Built under the mountain glacier of Thajiwas Glacier between Gagangir and Sonamarg, the tunnel bypasses the landslide- and avalanche-prone pockets of the road.
  • An intelligent traffic management system will make it easier to control the flow of vehicles and will also open up the Thajiwas Glacier and Sindh River for adventure tourism.

Strategic route to Ladakh:

  • The 6.5-km long two-lane tunnel is a key feature of the strategic access route to Ladakh.

Asia’s longest tunnel:

  • The Z-Morh will lead towards the Zojila tunnel, which is being constructed nearby.
  • The Zojila, Asia’s longest tunnel, will cut through the Himalayan range at Zojila Pass to reach the Kargil district in Ladakh.
  • The 13.14-km long tunnel is coming up soon.
  • Ladakh is currently cut off during winter, as the Zojila Pass, the only road that connects Kashmir with Ladakh, is closed in December, with its reopening dependent on the melting of snow at mountain passes along its route.
  • At times, the road would stay closed till April.
  • Security forces posted in Ladakh are highly dependent on this surface connection for the movement of goods and vehicles into the Ladakh region.
  • The project site of the Zojila tunnel is located at the existing highway NH-01, which starts from Sonamarg in Jammu and Kashmir and ends at Minimarg in Ladakh, at an elevation ranging from 2,700 metres to 3,300 metres.
  • The present site location falls into seismic zone IV and all precautionary measures have been taken to safeguard the tunnels.
Categories
February 2025
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
2425262728  
Scroll to Top