President Donald Trump said on October 14 that massive oil, gas and mineral exploration activities are planned for Greenland, renewing tensions over the Arctic territory.

Trump described Greenland’s natural resources as potentially enormous and emphasized the island’s strategic importance for defending the United States and Europe against future attacks.

However, Greenland’s deputy mining minister Jørgen Hammeken-Holm disputed the scale of the announcement, saying the territory remains far from conducting massive exploration and that existing projects could take years to become operational.

Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, has attracted Trump’s interest because of its mineral wealth and strategic location in the Arctic, USA Today has reported.

A September security agreement between the United States, Denmark and Greenland allows an expanded American military presence on the island while restricting military activity and investment by American adversaries without written approval.