US allies won’t forget Trump Greenland crisis

What on earth has the last fortnight been all about?

In the wake of a successful military operation in Venezuela earlier this month, a buoyed-up Donald Trump started to ratchet up the rhetoric on Greenland.

Day after day, the world was treated to claims of ownership, threats of military action and tariffs against traditional allies in Europe.

Now, in an apparent puff of smoke, it may all have gone.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, arguably the Trump whisperer-in-chief, seems to have talked the president down from his dangerously high hobby horse.

The ground may have been laid last week during a visit to Washington by the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland. The visit concluded with agreement on a “working group” to discuss Greenland’s future.

But Rutte appears to have finessed an issue that had threatened to shatter the north Atlantic alliance.

We don’t yet know the details of the deal, but many will wonder why it needed a frenetic two-week crisis to get here.

Denmark had long said that it was only too happy to see an increased American military presence on Greenland.

If Nato has now pledged to up its presence on and around the island, then that will go some way towards reassuring Donald Trump that the alliance is finally paying proper attention to Greenland.

The New York Times quotes anonymous officials as saying one idea under discussion is for Denmark to cede sovereignty over small areas of Greenland where the US would build military bases – similar to the arrangement by which the UK maintains sovereign bases on Cyprus.

Trump said the deal would involve access to Greenland’s mineral resources.

Neither Denmark nor Nato has confirmed these or any other reports.

Nato said discussions would “focus on ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts, especially the seven Arctic Allies” (the US, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) and aimed to prevent Russia and China from gaining a foothold, economic or military, in Greenland.

It won’t be long before details of the deal emerge. But the fact that Donald Trump triggered a fortnight of high drama and a sense of existential crisis within Nato to get here will not easily be forgotten.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a “rupture”, saying the old order was “not coming back.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of “seismic change” and urged greater European independence.

It’s hard to see a quick return to business as usual.