After a brief lull, last year's topic of Trump's interest in the world's largest island has returned to the negotiating table and the media.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that he will meet with Danish officials within a week to discuss Greenland. The White House chief did not rule out the possibility of deploying US military forces to annex part of the Kingdom of Denmark if necessary.
"We must be prepared for a direct confrontation with Trump," an EU diplomat familiar with the content of the current negotiations between European leaders preparing for a possible response to American aggression told Politico.
According to Politico's source, Trump is "in aggressive mode" and his statements about Greenland are no longer being taken lightly on the old continent.
Allies and enemies
"The Kingdom of Denmark – and thus Greenland – is part of NATO and therefore covered by the Alliance's security guarantee. We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the US that gives the United States broad access to Greenland. In addition, the Kingdom has invested heavily in security in the Arctic," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote on social media on January 4.
During Tuesday's talks, her Canadian counterpart Mark Carney expressed his support and ruled out questioning the country's territorial integrity. "Security in the Arctic must be achieved jointly, with full respect for national borders," the Danish prime minister wrote after the talks.
Frederiksen was referring to the fact that the United States is also interested in Greenland due to the approaching battle between key global players for the polar north.
Russia already has a fleet of non-military nuclear icebreakers, which, according to the Daily Mail, are "the most powerful non-military vessels ever built, allowing Vladimir Putin's men to go where no one else can go" — not even the Americans.
For now, the Arctic region includes the vast north of Russia and Russian Siberia, most of Iceland, northern Norway and Canada, Danish Greenland, and northern Alaska.
It is also a question of minerals
While the US could already exercise military surveillance over the area thanks to a Danish-American agreement, it does not have access to what lies beneath Danish soil. There are deposits of many minerals there, including critical ones that are essential for the production of modern technologies.
Among other things, Greenland holds up to ten percent of the world's reserves of rare earths, gold, diamonds, uranium, tungsten, iron ore, nickel, copper, oil, gas, and high-quality graphite.
However, the downside of their potential extraction is the catastrophic impact on the environment, as seen in Chinese "colonies."
How to do it?
Both Politico and the Times have developed various scenarios for how Trump might attempt to seize Greenland.
The first scenario involves the White House's past efforts to support separatist sentiment on the island, which would lead to secession from Denmark and subsequently to easier occupation by the US.
Another possibility is Washington's attempt to have Greenland accede to the Compact of Free Association (COFA). However, the United States already has the same freedom of movement on the island as COFA would provide. Accession to the treaty would also have to be preceded by a declaration of Greenland's independence from Copenhagen.
Based on statements by Trump and his administration , both newspapers admit that a military invasion is also possible. Sources at Politico claim that the European part of NATO is not prepared for this. According to Sky News, Europeans are convinced that they need Washington more than they need Danish territorial integrity, and they will not offer any real military resistance to Trump.
Several diplomatic sources have said that, just as NATO is strengthening its defense of the Baltic states and Poland, it should strengthen its position in the Arctic region, but European countries are still far from taking any real steps.
European leaders are trying to defend Greenland by making concessions to Washington, but none of them seem willing to fight against its army. A military clash between the US and Europe would mean the end of the Alliance.
Theft of cultural heritage?
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip, the topic of the destruction of tangible cultural heritage, as well as the theft of archaeological finds and their export from occupied territory, is sometimes raised.
From the 10th to the 15th century, Greenland was inhabited by descendants of Norwegian Vikings, who gave it the name Grœnland, meaning Green Land. From the 14th century onwards, the ancestors of today's Inuit began to move to Greenland, later joined by modern Scandinavian settlers.
Both European and non-European settlements on the island have left their mark, and, as in Norway, the melting of the glaciers may reveal archaeological sites that have survived for centuries under a layer of ice since the last significant cooling.
It is to be hoped that a possible American occupation of the island will not prevent excavations by Danish and international archaeological teams.