... Eight months after Donald Trump almost destroyed NATO by threatening to annex Greenland " by force, if necessary " he signed what he called a "fantastic" new deal that would give the U.S. all the control and military access it needs over the Danish territory.
European allies were so alarmed by Trump's apparent determination to take the territory at the start of the year -- and his threat of 25% tariffs on anyone who got in his way -- that they began talking about a future for the West without America. In many ways, the transatlantic relationship has not been the same since.
Tuesday's agreement on security in the Arctic and North Atlantic, signed at the United Nations by Trump and the prime ministers of Greenland and Denmark, ends the dispute. But what exactly is in the deal? Who will pay for it? And who are the winners and losers from months of high-stakes talks?
What exactly is the deal?
This new agreement, which still needs ratification by Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, is not, in fact, completely new. Instead, it sets out to "amend and supplement" an earlier deal between the U.S. and Denmark dating back to 1951. Many experts have been saying for months that this earlier agreement gave Trump most of what he said he wanted in terms of more or less unfettered freedom to set up military bases and police the region's security.
One key difference this time is that Greenland itself is a signatory. ...
Trump promised to build two "very major" bases in Greenland. According to the text released by the Danish government, the two touted new American bases aren't entirely new either, at least in terms of their locations. ...
Trump has often spoken about Chinese and Russian military activities around Greenland, claiming earlier this year that, "if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers. There are Chinese destroyers ... there are Russian submarines all over the place. We're not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that's what they're going to do if we don't."
NATO officials have quietly pushed back against those claims, with one diplomat saying "we're not seeing any Chinese activity" around Greenland, while Russian movements in the High North haven't changed significantly and there's little, if any, Russian presence near Greenland. ...
Instead, the deal explicitly reaffirms Danish sovereignty and Greenland's right to self-determination -- including choosing independence from Denmark, potentially. For what it's worth, the deal also explicitly recognizes the need to protect the "pristine" environment of the territory and Greenlanders' cultural, social and economic rights.
"Reading it, one wonders why so much fuss for so little, when this could have been done from the start," said Grgoire Roos, program director for Europe at the Chatham House think tank in London. "I also think it's well played from Denmark -- clean and diplomatic. Some might call it the European touch."
Speaking before the deal was published, the Atlantic Council's Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, said the deal gave Washington something it could call a win, and "allowed the U.S. to walk back from its damaging and pointless threats of aggression."
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ALEX
As I understand it, only one name on a list of many that is being prepared by Trump's inner-circle for Trump to pick and choose.
I'd like to see the other names on the list he's going to threaten to tear down.