US threatens to annex Greenland - 2025/2026

[Inthedetails]

Is the reference in the NY Post article to the US having sovereignty over its bases? Doesn't this happen already ? I have a vague idea it does in the UK but am not sure exactly how it works. It's a matter of leases anyway not ownership.

I'm wondering if the word "lease" is what set him off to begin with. He doesn't want to be a renter.

Who knows.

Whatever the case, he could've negotiated, without scaring the world, about military bases that were already available to USA.

jmopinion

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Isn't that sort of what is going on with Taiwan? They claim to be independent, but the PRC says no. The world and UN sort of sold out the Taiwanese by saying there can't be two Chinas.

Things are a bit different with Taiwan as until the 17th century it was inhabited by its own indigenous people. It was "discovered" in European terms by the Portuguese and claimed by the Dutch in the early 17th century, about the time the Han Chinese started to arrive. It was annexed by China later in that century but then ceded to Japan in 1895 before becoming an independent state after WWII. As such, it was only under the control of mainland China for about 230 years.

Taiwan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[otto]

As soon as the US government said that Canada will become the 51st state, Canadians stopped trusting the US. Today, Greenland has the same position: the US is unreliable, untrustworthy. Not even a change of government will restore trust.

In the video, Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Parliament of Greenland, describes this US president speech at Davos as "so insulting", "so enraged by this", "sounding like someone who has dementia", "doesn't even know which country he is invading", "Canada is also on the menu", "so upside-down and screwed up", "can't own land in Greenland, can own an allotment and put a house on it" ...

An interesting point is that no one in Greenland owns land. There is collective ownership of all land by the people of Greenland. The United States may demand sovereignty over their military bases on Greenland, similar to the agreement in Cyprus. However, I don't think that is possible since no one has ownership of land. No exception will be made for a country that cannot be trusted.

'We can never really trust America again': former Greenland MP

Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Parliament of Greenland, says people in Nuuk haven't heard any details about the deal U.S. President Donald Trump teased on Wednesday. But she said Greenlanders won't trust him again, likening him to a sled dog who turns and bites you."

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7055773

 

[otto]

The base they've currently got on Greenland (Pituffik) is leased from Denmark and remains Danish territory. What the new deal seems to envisage is something more akin to the British Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus, which are official British territory, rather than being a leased part of the Republic of Cyprus.

Akrotiri and Dhekelia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I doubt that is possible due to how land is allotted in Greenland. How could a foreign country own land in Greenland when citizens cannot? It would be a big mistake to give a foreign country rights that citizens of Greenland do not have. Furthermore, US military bases would demand more and more territory until they had ownership of the majority of the Island.

 

[otto]

With a promise of old wine in new bottles ...

"I think Trump felt compelled to abandon his Greenland dream. We're seeing a president who thought he could easily annex Greenland, who completely miscalculated and underestimated the reaction that would provoke in Europe and NATO countries. He tried to sell a loss as a huge success.

That is what Laurien Crump, foreign policy expert at Radboud University, says in 'Het kwartier'.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/liveblog/mark-rutte-met-de-hoogste-commandanten-in-de-navo-snel-uitwerk~1768395068931/

 

[Herat]

With a promise of old wine in new bottles ...

"I think Trump felt compelled to abandon his Greenland dream. We're seeing a president who thought he could easily annex Greenland, who completely miscalculated and underestimated the reaction that would provoke in Europe and NATO countries. He tried to sell a loss as a huge success.

That is what Laurien Crump, foreign policy expert at Radboud University, says in 'Het kwartier'.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/liveblog/mark-rutte-met-de-hoogste-commandanten-in-de-navo-snel-uitwerk~1768395068931/

Yeah, I see a complete failure on Greenland, but he's very happy to have smoked out Europe's NATO plans, so that Putin can take advantage of them.

 

[LAborn]

Unfortunately, Greenlanders often seemed left out of the public and political discourse when it comes to the future of their own country. It is their land, their territory and it should ultimately be their decision. For example, he stated today he needs Greenland to actualize his dreams for the golden dome as though his fantasies would ever or should ever take priority over the rights and wishes of the native 56,000 Greenlandic people or entitles him to violate Greenland’s sovereignty. His dreams and desires are not their problem and they have made it quite clear they are not interested in becoming part of the United States of America, according to ABC News. In other words, he doesn’t need the golden dome but he does he need accept that the people of Greenland said no.


According to Aljazeer, the people of Greenland have already rejected the idea of becoming part of America or the notion that it could or should be acquired either through force or being bought. So what more is there to discuss? No means no and we should respect the people of Greenland, their government and the fact that the right and power to determine fate of the country and land of Greenland as whole belongs to them and only them first.

Whatever his national security concerns and needs are there are far better ways to address and cope with them besides trying to undermine and take control of a sovereign state

https://twitter.com/x/status/2014020416860573726

Greenland is an island covered by a sheet of ice but even so even it was just “a piece of ice” then why is he so obsessed with it? If a piece of ice with a flare for starting drama is all he is really looking for can’t he just purchase the iceberg that sank the Titanic so that we can all move on?

Also for a country he has seeming been obsessed over and claims absolutely needs to be annexed to US, even at the expense of breaking with NATO and the consideration of the use of military force to claim dominion over, due to national security concerns it is startling he seemingly can’t even really remember its name or repeatedly confuses it with and refers to it as Iceland. How essential can it really be to acquire if his memory just whittles it down to a big piece of ice in his head?

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/greenland-relegated-stepping-stone-trump-europe-standoff-party/story

Greenland’s strategic position in seven maps: Why Trump wants the island

The world’s largest island sits in the Arctic Circle and is strategically and economically valuable.

www.aljazeera.com

JMO/speculation

He kept referring to it as Iceland too!!! Not just a "piece of ice". Good lord, it's insane he's the leader, of ANYTHING!

 

[BetsieR1]

I hope Obama wears the tan suit to the funeral.

 

[Inthedetails]

I hope Obama wears the tan suit to the funeral.

I think he's busy that day.

jmo

 

[Charlot123]

I doubt that is possible due to how land is allotted in Greenland. How could a foreign country own land in Greenland when citizens cannot? It would be a big mistake to give a foreign country rights that citizens of Greenland do not have. Furthermore, US military bases would demand more and more territory until they had ownership of the majority of the Island.

Which btw has a precedent. Land ownership, land property as the concept that emerged in sedentary tribes, but was not existing in nomadic ones. (Mongols didn’t have the concept of land ownership, either.) In Russia, the tribes similar to Inuits (the Evenks, the Eskimos) were semi-nomadic or nomadic and also did not have the concept of land ownership. I don’t know how one can define American Natives, but one suspects that with harsh climate, it was a mixture of nomadic and periodic sedentary life. People move where land “gives”. Hence, the concept that “we don’t own the land, we are its inhabitants, like birds or animals” made sense to them. It is a very serious clash of ideas between the Natives and the Invaders and a source of the total lack of understanding as other forms of property (e.g. tools, such as adzes) the Natives had.

Hence historically, all land treaties in North America favored the invaders and ended up with the reservations. You cannot negotiate a good deal on something you view as not yours.

Maybe, just maybe, the Māoris who IMHO got a better historical deal from “their” invaders in New Zealand, and had land ownership in a tribal form, were saved by precisely this fact.

But I understand that different perceptions of what land is make treaties impossible.

 

[CrimeDawg123]

I think he's busy that day.

jmo

You know damn well Michelle will be!

 

[Ruminations]

I'm wondering if the word "lease" is what set him off to begin with. He doesn't want to be a renter.

Who knows.

Whatever the case, he could've negotiated, without scaring the world, about military bases that were already available to USA.

jmopinion

IMO, one of the agendas, for the benefit of Putin, was to rattle, if not destroy, NATO.

Mission accomplished already, and this is not over yet.

I guess this "concepts of a plan" thing is new on the international stage, but Americans know what Trump means by that as they pay their skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Trump doesn't have a good track record for accuracy when he reports he has the beginnings of a plan.

I think it's a waste of space and ink to speculate what is in the works when the answer could be nothing at all.

MOO

 

[otto]

Greenland's sovereignty is safe for now, and extra retaliatory tariffs from the US on the EU are temporarily suspended, but trust is broken and the EU will not easily forget.

"It raises the question of how much friendship can still be considered when the Americans disregard the sovereignty of NATO allies and previous trade agreements. Commission President von der Leyen already expressed her frustration in a speech in Davos on Tuesday: "In both politics and business, a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it has to mean something."
...

After a conversation with NATO chief Mark Rutte, the president announced on social media that import tariffs are off the table. There is an agreement to better protect the Arctic within NATO, Greenland was not discussed at all last night.

For European leaders, this means short-term relief. The plan to retaliate with European import tariffs or by banning American companies from the European market can be shelved. But concerns about relations with the Americans have not disappeared. The past few weeks will not be forgotten quickly in Brussels."

Trump's fickleness is forcing EU leaders to seek a new relationship with the Americans."

EU-leiders praten na bewogen week over nieuwe Trump-strategie

In Brussel zijn de zorgen over Trump nog niet weg nadat hij vooralsnog afziet van het willen innemen van Groenland.

nos.nl

 

[Herat]

All this establishes is that #47's word has no value and he can reneg on any agreement that the other party entered into in good faith.

 

[Inthedetails]

IMO, one of the agendas, for the benefit of Putin, was to rattle, if not destroy, NATO.

Mission accomplished already, and this is not over yet.

I guess this "concepts of a plan" thing is new on the international stage, but Americans know what Trump means by that as they pay their skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Trump doesn't have a good track record for accuracy when he reports he has the beginnings of a plan.

I think it's a waste of space and ink to speculate what is in the works when the answer could be nothing at all.

MOO

Mission: cause chaos, spread widely

jmo

 

[PrairieWind]

German chancellor Merz seems to be siding with Trump and the US now. There is clearly something else going on her behind the scenes.

 

[SouthAussie]

German chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed Trump’s change of heart: “I am very grateful that President Trump has distanced himself from his original plans to take over Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on 1 February.”

The European parliament can now go ahead with discussions on the EU-US trade deal, following Trump’s tariff threat reversal, its president, Roberta Metsola, said.

Relations with US have taken ‘big blow’, says EU foreign policy chief

Comments came at emergency EU meeting called after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump to annex Greenland

www.theguardian.com

 

[PrairieWind]

German chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed Trump’s change of heart: “I am very grateful that President Trump has distanced himself from his original plans to take over Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on 1 February.”

The European parliament can now go ahead with discussions on the EU-US trade deal, following Trump’s tariff threat reversal, its president, Roberta Metsola, said.

Relations with US have taken ‘big blow’, says EU foreign policy chief

Comments came at emergency EU meeting called after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump to annex Greenland

www.theguardian.com

Merz:
"We Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust is on which NATO rests. In an age of great powers, the United States, too, will depend on this trust. It is their — and our — decisive competitive advantage."
Europe and the United States must repair the trust on which the transatlantic alliance was built, he said.'

Merz explained how Europe had become no longer competitive and the threat of China. I am confident in Germany and the United States future are allies.

 

[Charlot123]

German chancellor Merz seems to be siding with Trump and the US now. There is clearly something else going on her behind the scenes.

For this, we have to look at what’s happening in Germany. It seems that alt-right movement is on the rise there, and every politician wants to keep his place and status quo within the country. Could that play a certain role?

 

[SouthAussie]

For this, we have to look at what’s happening in Germany. It seems that alt-right movement is on the rise there, and every politician wants to keep his place and status quo within the country. Could that play a certain role?

I think that what is being said publicly, and what is being said privately, are two different things.

This article explains that Merz is trying to avoid a confrontation with the US, but his diplomats were privately ready to join the ACI process if the US takes over Greenland. (ACI is the European Anti Coercion Instrument)


In private, German diplomats have joined forces with their French counterparts in a rare show of unity to signal they would be ready to support beginning the ACI process. “There is indeed a convergence in the positions between France and Germany, which was previously unthinkable,” said the EU diplomat.

The 5 Europeans deciding how to handle Trump

A summit of EU leaders in Brussels will chart a new course for transatlantic relations. But who wants what?

www.politico.eu