Analysis: Why Greenland and Europe might have to offer Trump concessions

Europe might offer a minerals deal and greater US security presence on Greenland. Will that be enough to satiate Trump?

What can small nations do to prevent being gobbled up by bigger, more powerful ones?

This is no abstract question for Greenland right now. It’s very real. And it has no easy answers. Greenland’s autonomy, its future, hangs in the balance.

Greenland is a territory of Denmark. Since 2009, it’s been largely self-governing, and has the right to pursue independence at a time of its choosing. Independence is the wish of all its political parties. But with economic self-sufficiency some way off, it’s sticking with Denmark for now.

Not if United States President Donald Trump has his way. He wants Greenland for the US. Since the bombing of Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro, realisation has dawned that he is deadly serious about this. The White House has pointedly refused to take military force off the table, although the real estate mogul-turned-president would likely prefer a simple cash deal.

Europe is in diplomatic crisis mode. Denmark is a NATO member. The idea of NATO’s chief guarantor – the US – annexing territory from a member state seemed preposterous until recently. No longer.