President Donald Trump is right that Greenland harbors immense strategic value, for it commands a large part of the Arctic where China and Russia are building and encroaching. But he is wrong to threaten Denmark to cede sovereignty. The president should instead pursue a compromise that fulfills U.S. security needs without jeopardizing America’s moral standing and NATO alliances.

Trump wants Greenland for two reasons. First, American ownership of the island would allow the United States to militarily dominate the Arctic north. Second, because Greenland holds massive oil, rare earth mineral and fishing reserves, and would put especially the first of these into U.S. hands as a counterbalance to China’s current dominance of that important commodity.