Controlling The Arctic

"In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Denmark's claim to sovereignty over Greenland is far stronger than Canada's claim to sovereignty up to the North Pole for the entire archipelago."

"Whether it's enough [$1B in funding over 4 yrs to improve military transportation infrastructure in the Arctic and a partnership with Australia to develop Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar] to offset American desire to own territory in the north? I don't know." 

Former chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson

 

"If they were to acquire Greenland, it would be the first step in eventually acquiring control over all of northern North America."

"It's such a bizarre distortion of the Monroe Doctrine, which was about not allowing non-North American powers to assert and control North America."

"It's telling that the Trump White House has not come back with any specific asks. And that, to me, points to the fact that this is smoke and mirrors and this is about America wanting to grow."

Whitney Lackenbauer, research chair, study of Canadian North, Trent University

 

"The first part that we've always been concerned with is that the Americans would say we're not pulling our weight, and they would go to systems that don't need Canadian territory."

"In other words, cut us out, so that NORAD either becomes hollow or doesn't even become functioning."

Robert Huebert, director, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic studies, University of Calgary 

A new settlement was established near the present-day capital, Nuuk, after Danish colonization in the 18th Century. Reuters

 

A precedent is on the verge of being set, with U.S. President Donald Trump rumbling about taking Greenland from Denmark, and in the consternation over his belligerent assertions that the U.S. will, one way or another achieve that goal, in the process alienating his European allies and risking the dissolution of NATO, while other nations will likely begin to feel the pressure of the president's territorial acquisition aggression.

 

Mette Frederiksen in Paris last week during a bilateral meeting, met the not-unexpected support of Canada's prime minister with Mark Carney stating the position that the future of Greenland should be a matter between Denmark and Greenland with the exclusion of any others. Recent investments by the Carney government under pressure by Trump to meet NATO's minimum GDP investment in military preparedness doesn't equate to Canada being let off the hook of Trump's gimlet eye.

 

The initial investment in developing next-generation military satellite communications for Arctic operations may not insulate Canada to the extent it hopes for, from President Trump's continued gibes about Canada's irrelevance. Canada -- like Greenland, an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark's protection is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as an island of strategic importance in the Atlantic Ocean -- faces similar challenges from Mr. Trump..

 

 

"One way or another, we will have Greenland", President Trump stated yet again, accelerating his threats in recent weeks to take over the largest island in the world. Ostensibly to prevent Russia and China from attempting to do the same, he cautions. Under the rationale of the imperative to ensure American security interests in the Western Hemisphere a repurposing of the Monroe Doctrine has been cited as the security instrument motivating and legitimizing a Greenland takeover.

 

That Denmark's Frederiksen vehemently opposes the proposed encroachment by the U.S., spurning its sovereignty in Greenland, and that Greenlanders themselves have no wish to become a U.S. protectorate is of no moment to Mr. Trump. The U.S. has an established military presence in Greenland through a 1951 agreement with Denmark, in the presence of a  remote airbase. Speculation over the manner in which the U.S. might assert its claims on the North abound.

 

The U.S. military raid in Venezuela that resulted in the scooping up of the country's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and taking them to the U.S. to stand trial for narcotics trafficking appears to have put the U.S. President in the mood to flex his military muscles and exert pressure on both enemies and allies alike.  While Cuba and Colombia are in his crosshairs, so too are Denmark/Greenland and Canada, Trump's fanciful '51st State'. 

 

Trump is reportedly taking aim at Canada and expressing concern about its 'vulnerability' to adversaries after his previous threats to make the country the ‘51st state’   Getty Images 

 

"I think the EU and Canada, all of us are tiptoeing around Trump because we know he is very volatile." 

"We are all economically very dependent on the U.S. and militarily dependent on the U.S."

"[A potential rupture in NATO and Trump's] Donroe Doctrine [runs the risk of creating] strong men [spheres of influence across the world]."

"This then gives the nod to Russia to continue to control its sphere of influence and perhaps continue to try and annex Ukraine. And China is going to take this as a licence to be able to dominate its area of the world."

"We've seen in history when you have this multipolarity and these multiple spheres of influence, there's the greatest likelihood of conflict because of this increased great power competition."

"And then accidents and incidents are more likely to be interpreted as nefarious, and everybody comes out swinging."

Andrea Charron, director, Centre for Defence and Security Studies, University of Manitoba

Transparently Disingenuous Russia

"Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine."

"[It would allow the country to] hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty." 

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin said Russian troops had the "strategic initiative" in Ukraine   Reuters

"He is afraid of negotiating with Ukraine."

"He is afraid of negotiating with me personally, and by excluding Ukraine's [government] he is suggesting that Ukraine is not an independent actor for him."

"Europe definitely knows how to defend itself, and we are working together to ensure greater security for our country and all European nations." 

"Russia continues looking for excuses to drag this war out even further."

"Putin is playing the same game he has since 2014 [unilateral annexation of the Crimean peninsula]."

"This is dangerous for everyone -- and there should be an appropriate response from the United States, Europe, and all our global partners who seek peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"You could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when... Putin started getting into Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location."

"New leadership means you're not gonna have a deal for a long time." 

"If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault - which it might not be... I am going to put secondary tariffs... on all oil coming out of Russia."

"There will be a 25% tariff on oil and other products sold in the United States, secondary tariffs."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

(Volodymyr Zelenskyy / X)

 

As a brilliant solution to vexing problems, Russian President Putin's Friday proposal for Ukraine to be placed  temporarily under external governance throughout the efforts to reach a peaceful settlement in the conflict that Russia imposed upon Ukraine through its military invasion and subsequent claims of legitimacy in annexing Ukrainian provinces as Russian territory, this one registered as just another form of naked aggression on the part of Russia in its territorial grabs. 

 

Further, calling into dispute Ukrainian democracy and President Zelenskyy's legitimacy reminds one of Vladimir Putin's musical chairs performance when he brought in Dmitry Medvedev as president while he took on Medvedev's prime ministerial role, to enable them to once again reverse the situation ensuring that Russia's two-term presidency limit would not interfere with Putin's designs to remain Russian president in perpetuity to which end he changed the constitution and now sits secure as Russia's legal long-term president. Any challengers have been summarily either murdered or imprisoned.

 

Yet this is the man who insists that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has no legitimacy to sign a peace agreement since his term expired. A pathetic piece of demagoguery since he would be very well aware that it is illegal in Ukraine for national elections to be held during times of conflict and the nation is under martial law. Still, Putin pressed ahead with the claim that any such agreement to a permanent ceasefire signed by the sitting Ukrainian government could be challenged by a successor government so that new elections should be called for, through external vigilance under temporary guardianship. 

A summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron considered plans for troop deployment to Ukraine in view of an eventual peace deal where Macron announced that 'several' other nations would volunteer to participate in the force along with France and Britain. Mr. Putin, however, made it clear that he would not accept troop involvement from NATO members in a prospective peacekeepng force. So, for Mr. Putin it would be far more appropriate if Belarus, Iran and North Korean troops comprised such a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

 

"They are playing games and they're playing for time", stated U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, while Macron and other Paris summit participants accused Russia of insincerity in its offering to participate in negotiations that could lead to a peace agreement to end the bloodshed. 

Both Russia and Ukraine agreed in principle to a tentative US.-brokered agreement to pause strikes on energy infrastructure even as both sides hold varying views on when the deal to halt strikes should become effective, accusing one another of violations, making it more than obvious just how fraught any semblance of an agreement would be in the challenge to negotiate a broad peace. 

 

Germany has voted to hugely boost investment in its military   BBC

 

Russia's claims of wanting peace and an end to the conflict -- as long as it is able to hold on to the one-fifth of eastern Ukraine that the Kremlin now considers part of Greater Russia, are viewed with skepticism by its neighbours. Leading Norway, as an example to refurbish its old Cold War Military Bunkers, and leaving Germany convinced it must now begin to rebuild a viable military, the better to confront any future expansionary moves by Moscow.

 

Bunkers like the ones at Bardufoss can keep expensive fighter planes safe from attacks by drones (Credit: Norwegian Armed Forces)