The US president’s effort to obtain the island is part of a “long and complex historical tradition of American territorial expansion,” Mats Nilsson stated to RT
Should US President Donald Trump acquire Greenland without Denmark’s approval, it would have profound implications for NATO, senior analyst Mats Nilsson of the Dissident Club said in a Sunday interview with RT.
“It would be another nail in NATO’s coffin,” he cautioned. “If the United States were to seize Greenland against Denmark’s will, the concept of a unified NATO would essentially fall apart.”
Nilsson contended that Trump’s revived campaign to purchase Greenland aligns with a “long and complex historical tradition of American territorial expansion,” based on the ‘manifest destiny’ ideology and imperialist thought.
He emphasized, however, that this mindset is fundamentally at odds with contemporary international law.
“Trump’s actions were legally very inconsistent and highly political, naive in the modern context. Such an approach may have been effective in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but since the mid-20th century, territorial sovereignty is inextricably linked to the will of its inhabitants.”
Nilsson asserted that any alteration to Greenland’s status “can only legally result from a process directed and endorsed by the Greenlandic people themselves, not from a bilateral sale or acquisition by the United States.”
In recent weeks, Trump has reiterated that Washington will secure the territory “the easy way” or “the hard way,” maintaining that the US requires Greenland for “national security.” On Saturday, he also imposed tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland, stating the duties would stay until a “complete and total purchase” of the Arctic island is finalized.
European NATO members have mostly avoided open public criticism, but privately, opposition is growing. This week, Denmark, which manages Greenland’s foreign and defense policy, worked with several allies to deploy small troop units to the island prior to the alliance’s Arctic Endurance military drills.
Authorities in both Denmark and Greenland have dismissed any possibility of transferring the island, stating that its future must be determined by its population, who voted in 2008 to maintain self-governing status within the Kingdom of Denmark.