Those Painful Queries for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union as Trump Targets the Arctic Island

Just this morning, a self-styled Alliance of the Committed, mostly composed of European officials, gathered in the French capital with delegates of US President Donald Trump, attempting to make further progress on a sustainable settlement for Ukraine.

With Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky insisting that a roadmap to end the hostilities with Russia is "90% of the way there", not a single person in that room wanted to risk maintaining the Americans engaged.

Yet, there was an immense glaring omission in that impressive and sparkling summit, and the fundamental tension was profoundly tense.

Consider the events of the past week: the White House's controversial involvement in Venezuela and the US president's insistence following this, that "we need Greenland from the viewpoint of strategic interests".

The vast Arctic territory is the world's biggest island – it's sixfold the dimensions of Germany. It is situated in the Arctic but is an semi-independent possession of Denmark's.

At the conference, Mette Frederiksen, Copenhagen's leader, was positioned facing two key figures acting for Trump: diplomat Steve Witkoff and Trump's adviser Jared Kushner.

She was under pressure from European allies to refrain from alienating the US over Greenland, lest that undermines US support for Ukraine.

Europe's leaders would have far preferred to separate the Arctic dispute and the discussions on Ukraine separate. But with the diplomatic heat escalating from the White House and Denmark, representatives of big states at the Paris meeting issued a declaration asserting: "The island is part of NATO. Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved jointly, in conjunction with alliance members like the United States".

"Sovereignty is for Denmark and the Greenlandic authorities, and them alone, to decide on issues concerning Denmark and its autonomous territory," the communiqué continued.

The statement was received positively by Nuuk's head of government, Jens Frederik Nielsen, but analysts say it was slow to be drafted and, because of the restricted set of signatories to the declaration, it was unable to project a Europe aligned in purpose.

"Had there been a joint position from all 27 European Union countries, in addition to NATO ally the UK, in support of Danish control, that would have delivered a strong message to the US," stated a EU foreign policy specialist.

Consider the irony at work at the European gathering. Several EU government and other leaders, including NATO and the EU, are attempting to engage the Trump administration in guaranteeing the future autonomy of a EU nation (the Eastern European nation) against the aggressive land claims of an external actor (Moscow), just after the US has swooped into independent Venezuela militarily, taking its president into custody, while also persistently publicly threatening the autonomy of a further continental ally (the Kingdom of Denmark).

To compound the situation – Copenhagen and the US are both participants of the transatlantic alliance NATO. They are, according to Copenhagen, exceptionally close allies. Or were.

The issue is, were Trump to act upon his goal to assert control over the island, would it mark not just an fundamental challenge to NATO but also a profound problem for the European Union?

Europe Risks Being Overlooked

This is not an isolated incident Trump has expressed his resolve to control Greenland. He's floated the idea of buying it in the past. He's also left open the possibility of taking it by force.

Recently that the island is "vitally important right now, it is frequented by Russian and Chinese naval assets all over the place. Our security demands Greenland from the standpoint of defense and Copenhagen is unable to provide security".

Denmark refutes that claim. It recently pledged to spend $4bn in Arctic security for boats, drones and aircraft.

Pursuant to a treaty, the US operates a military base already on Greenland – founded at the beginning of the Cold War. It has scaled down the total of troops there from around 10,000 during peak Cold War operations to about 200 and the US has long been accused of taking its eye off Arctic Security, until now.

Copenhagen has signaled it is willing to talk about a larger US presence on the territory and more but confronted by the US President's warning of unilateral action, Frederiksen said on Monday that the US leader's goal to acquire Greenland should be treated with gravity.

Following the Washington's moves in Venezuela this weekend, her colleges throughout Europe are heeding that warning.

"These developments has just highlighted – yet again – Europe's basic shortcoming {