How Trump’s Push on Greenland Could Reverberate in — Yes — the Middle East

Until recently the most that people tended to know about cold and sparsely populated Greenland is that it is not small and also that it is not Iceland. It’s a frigid autonomous territory of Denmark, but self-governing. Now what Björk once did for Iceland Donald Trump is doing for Greenland — putting it on the map. This has predictably caused some friction with the Danes, but there could be consequences down the road a long way away from Nuuk. The reasons for President Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland are by now well-known. It is the world’s largest island (Australia for some reason doesn’t count), and the importance of its geographical position between America and Europe is obvious. The Northwest Passage runs along Greeland’s long western coast. The island is also rich in rare earth metals, a market now dominated by Communist China, and has oil and gas reserves, too. On paper, seeing the Stars and Stripes fly over the vast Arctic wilderness of Greenland could sound like a good idea. President Trump’s outreach on the matter, however, has been perceived as brazen and abrupt at Copenhagen. On Saturday he told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I think we’re going to have it,” adding, “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world.”Those statements were preceded by a “fiery phone call” with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, in which she said that Greenland was not for sale. According to an unnamed European official quoted in the Financial Times, Mr. Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland is “serious, and potentially very dangerous.”Danger in international politics is often a matter of perception, or at least, starts out as one. Events in the Middle East in recent months have led to a seismic shakeup that has left not only Israel in a more powerful position vis-à-vis its traditional enemies, which is to say Iran and its proxies, but has made Turkey stronger vis-à-vis its neighbors in the region. President Ergodan has deftly played Turkey’s hand as Syria seeks to reconstitute itself into a some semblance of a modern, freer nation post-Assad. More assertive moves from Washington on Greenland could embolden Mr. Erdogan as he seeks to project Turkish power in the Middle East as well as the eastern Mediterranean, which includes part of Europe. They could make him double down on the illegal Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus, thus exacerbating tensions within NATO, as both Turkey and Greece are members of the alliance and are also guarantor powers on Cyprus. America has recently bolstered defense cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus, a development Mr. Erdogan does not look upon with delight. In an interview with the Greek newspaper Protothema over the weekend, a close adviser to President Trump, Steve Bannon, sounded the alarm on Turkey. The country, he said, is “aiming to restore the Ottoman Empire and become the new caliphate in the region. Erdogan and the people around him are very focused on gaining control of the two holy sites in the Middle East, especially now that Iran has collapsed because of the defeat of Hezbollah. Turkey, with the collapse of Syria as well, has become a major player.”If Greenland should have a future under the American flag, what stops President Erdogan from thinking that Syria could one day have a future under the Turkish flag? Indeed, unlike with Greenland, the Turks have a centuries-long history with Syria, and irredentism à la sauce Ottoman is not so far-fetched — just ask the Greeks. Mr. Bannon added that this region is the “arc of instability” and that “the war from Ukraine has moved towards the Middle East. If it gets out of control, it will metastasize to the Balkans through Greece and Turkey.”He also told the Greek newspaper that “Strategically, from the Panama Canal to Greenland, the U.S. protects its maritime borders. And this will certainly have huge implications for our relations with countries that have been considered friendly until now.”President Trump is hardly boxed in, but he and Secretary Rubio may need to tread a more delicate path on the diplomatic front — the Middle East is still volatile, and in the Mediterranean there is more than one volcano just under the surface.

How Trump’s Push on Greenland Could Reverberate in — Yes — the Middle East

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