France, Germany and Poland Draft Contingency Plan Against Possible U.S. Military Move on Greenland

Major-power real-estate grabs are rare but not unprecedented: Washington bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 and, during WWII, stationed troops in Greenland under a 1941 agreement when Denmark was occupied by Germany. Trump’s revived bid echoes these episodes while colliding with a 75-year trend of decolonisation and the post-1990 European project of shared sovereignty. Climate-driven Arctic thaw, new sea lanes, and critical-mineral prospects have turned the island into a geopolitical chessboard much as Suez did for energy routes in 1956. Europe’s swift tri-lateral huddle signals that the EU, long reluctant to speak the language of power, is testing its ability to deter unilateral U.S. action in what it views as its near strategic periphery. Whether the meeting yields more than a statement matters less today than what it portends: a possible 21st-century contest in which middle powers forge coalitions to restrain superpower adventurism—an issue likely to reverberate through Arctic governance frameworks over the coming century.