Trump gets his way in Greenland but only sort of

Well, there's a Greenland deal after months of negotiations, threats and warnings (the latter two by Donald Trump). No one has seen the small print yet and it won't be unveiled until next week at the UN General Assembly in New York. But it looks like it will grant carte blanche for the US to massively extend its military presence on the island, and a clause which stipulates that neither Russia nor China can ever ever put a foot on the place. So, there really isn't much more for the US than it had already under the 1951 treaty which granted the US the right to have a military base in the north of the island for missile-tracking. But Trump wants to develop his Golden Dome anti-missile shield over the US and if it ever goes ahead, Greenland will no doubt have a bigger role to play. So it makes sense both for the US and for American allies if there is a more substantial facility on Greeland. But it could probably have been done under the old treaty which allowed for the US to extend its facilties if it needed to. So all the hooha from Trump about wanting to take over the whole of Greenland - ie snatching its sovereignty from the islanders and extricating overall ownership fromn Denmark - was unnecessary, although Trump no doubt thinks that if he hadn't made such a fuss, neither Greenland nor Denmark would have signed up to the deal to be unveiled next week. Hohum.