The political scientist ruled out a direct military clash between the United States and the European Union over Greenland

There will be no direct armed conflict between the US army and the European military in Greenland. The leaders of the EU countries are well aware that such a scenario is fraught for them not only with strategic defeat, but also with the collapse of the entire NATO bloc. Pavel Feldman, Candidate of Political Sciences, Professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, told Izvestia about this on January 12.

"Nevertheless, the Europeans want to establish their military presence on the island. From their point of view, such a move could force US President Donald Trump to soften his position. Most likely, the effect will be reversed. Loud statements by European politicians will only provoke the American president and force him to act ahead of schedule," the expert believes.

According to him, Washington expects to take Greenland without firing a single shot. At the moment, buying the sympathies of the local population remains a priority option. The United States can offer them substantial material preferences and benefits in exchange for voluntarily seceding from Denmark. However, most likely, Trump is now simply raising the stakes ahead of negotiations with Copenhagen.

"As a result, they can conclude a bilateral agreement, according to which the Danes will retain formal political control over the island, and all its infrastructure will be given to the Americans for eternal use," Feldman expressed his opinion.

Both yours and ours: the EU is in a panic because of the US president's desire to get Greenland

Brussels is striving to maintain good relations with Washington and not offend Copenhagen.

The project manager of the Polylog Group, political consultant Ruslan Andreev, added that Greenland, as an autonomous territory within Denmark, is part of the NATO sphere. This means that we are either witnessing the beginning of a conflict within NATO, when European troops are preparing to defend themselves against US troops, or a public geopolitical game in which Trump needs Greenland, but not for security reasons.

"Within the framework of NATO or new bilateral government agreements with Denmark, Trump can land the necessary number of American troops on the island, surround it with the navy in order to fulfill his publicly stated goal of blocking one of the routes to the Arctic and the Western Hemisphere for Russia and China," Andreev said.

Therefore, he argues, the talk about the need for Greenland to join the United States as part of security is nothing more than a rhetorical ploy by Trump. The expert pointed out that the goals of the US leader are much more prosaic. For example, enter the history books of America as the president who increased the country's territory, or raise the Republican rating before the midterm congressional elections, because if the Democrats succeed, he will lose bicameral support.

"In any case, Greenland's political parties have announced in a joint statement that they do not want to be Americans, so it makes no sense to outbid or kidnap local politicians. Another question is that this idea of Trump's fix, like the changes in Venezuela, has been coming from the very beginning of the new presidential term, which means that the White House is looking for ways to implement it," the expert concluded.

On January 11, Trump announced that Washington would "one way or another" take control of Greenland. According to him, if the United States does not do this, Russia or China will take the island.

At the same time, former French President Francois Hollande expressed the opinion that US military action against Greenland would be the end of NATO. He added that the United States "should not do anything about Greenland, especially by military means."

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