by Dmitry Sosnovsky
[REGNUM] Donald Trump first announced his plans to acquire Greenland during his first presidential term, in 2019. He tested the waters by offering to sell the island to Denmark, and was predictably rebuffed.
But he’s not the first US President to want it. Negotiations started for Greenland near the time we bought Alaska from Russia, and have been readdressed periodically ever since, making thr current posturing a fascinating exercise.Much has happened since then in American and international politics with the direct participation of the White House and its current occupant.
And Trump returned to a topic that had long interested him with a completely different background—among other things, already having behind him the swift operation in Venezuela that stunned the world.
The capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas became a significant factor in the context of the US President's renewed raising of the "Greenland issue" because it clearly demonstrated that, despite the American leader's radical rhetoric, he is not joking and does not intend to limit himself to words. At least, not always.
So the nervousness of European politicians, which is becoming increasingly difficult to conceal with each passing day, is understandable. And no matter how much the red-eyed Emmanuel Macron brags, demonstrating his desire to "inspire fear," observers generally agree that EU officials look, at the very least, pitiful in the current situation.
And the Europeans' particular helplessness and confusion in the face of such abrupt and blatant impudence from their overseas ally stands in stark contrast to the didactic, mentoring tone they allowed themselves to adopt in their dealings with Russia just recently.
And now, suddenly, all the tearful mantras about international law, a “rules-based world,” and the “inadmissibility of revising post-war borders” have disappeared somewhere.
Ironically, it seems they're not the only ones who've begun to forget themselves. Suddenly facing the threat of a clash with the US, European officials seem to be experiencing fewer of their traditional bouts of frenzied Russophobia.
And while the Baltic leaders are decadently discussing their own binges on social media, Ukraine has firmly retreated to the background on the European agenda, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has suddenly realized: "Russia is a European country" with which we need to negotiate.
Europeans' hopes of reaching an agreement with Trump are clearly not being strengthened. Simply because he treats them with demonstrative disregard, to say the least.
When asked about the words of Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who said that the island wants to remain Danish (which, by the way, is not at all so indisputable, judging by the published results of opinion polls), the US President, without batting an eye, declared that this is "his problem" and that he doesn't even know who it is.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen's recent speech following a meeting at the White House was also very telling. No matter how hard he tried to put on a good face, he was doing a dismal job.
The negotiations then failed, despite the extremely polite attempts of the Copenhagen representatives to convey to their “American friends” that the US seizure of Greenland, imagine, “does not correspond to the interests of the kingdom .”
Apparently, these plaintive admonitions did not have the desired effect on the American leader: “We have failed to change the American position… President Trump wants to conquer Greenland,” Nielsen concluded sadly.
In fact, it would be strange if they did. A politician literally obsessed with the desire to go down in history as America's greatest president is capable—and, more importantly, as we've already seen, willing—of going to great lengths to make that happen.
The annexation of such an impressive territory as Greenland will certainly contribute to such an increase.
And against this backdrop, a conflict with the sincerely despised Europeans and even, as a consequence, the collapse of NATO, which Trump, in principle, does not value all that much, appears to be a price that the US president considers entirely reasonable.
After all, Greenland is not only a wealth of resources hidden under melting ice, but also an exceptionally strategic location from a military point of view.
So convenient that Trump, not without reason, considers modest Denmark incapable of taking full advantage of it.
But he, by his own admission, does not consider Russia and China to be such, although neither Moscow nor Beijing have ever spoken about claims to the island, even, as they say, in the realm of delirium.
Meanwhile, Greenland's hypothetical incorporation into the United States could provide Washington with an invaluable springboard for further expansion. Let's not forget that Trump's wish list also includes Canada, which has Alaska to the northwest, the United States itself to the south, and Greenland itself to the northeast.
Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian President's special representative for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries, also pointed to this possible sequence of "making America great again."
By his humorous (and so far more or less perceived as such) remark, Greenland becomes the 51st American state, and Canada the 52nd.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is already worried, expressing support for Denmark and threatening the Americans with NATO's infamous Article 5. Which, of course, is quite ironic in itself.
But even without annexing Canada, if the United States gains Greenland, it will overtake its northern neighbor in terms of territory and become second only to Russia, gaining a foothold in the Arctic. Such symbolic achievements are certainly worth a lot in the eyes of a politician like Trump.
Territorial acquisitions can naturally have a significant impact on the perception of the head of state by his contemporaries and descendants.
Take, for example, the reverence with which Americans still hold the eleventh president, James Knox Polk, who seized 40% of the territory from Mexico and Oregon from the British. Thomas Jefferson, with his "Louisiana Purchase," goes without saying—his portrait adorns the two-dollar bill.
However, there are exceptions to the rule: the purchaser of Alaska, the 17th President Andrew Johnson, lost a significant amount of popularity by the end of his term and even nearly suffered impeachment, and did not run for another term.
In fairness, it should be noted that the significance of the purchase of Russian America was not fully understood by contemporaries.
And it is unlikely that such an underestimation will threaten Greenland, for a number of reasons mentioned above.
Another thing is that no one can say with 100% certainty right now (probably not even he himself) how serious the US President really is in his territorial claims against Denmark (and Canada).
And seriously, who knows what steps in this direction Trump actually considers acceptable – given his loud assertion that Greenland will become American “one way or another.”
| Turkey invaded Greek Cyprus decades ago. They are still there, and nothing has happened either to Turkey or to NATO. Why is this not a precedent? |