European leaders express dismay at Donald Trump’s threat to seize Greenland, a move that would expand by almost a quarter the land area of the United States. “We do need Greenland,” the US President said on Sunday, doubling down on his previously expressed intention to take over the vast Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.

Sir Keir Starmer and his European counterparts meeting in Paris said in a statement that “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.” They pledged to defend its territorial integrity, but did not spell out how this was to be done.

The once fantastical possibility of a shock redrawing of the global map, with the incorporation of Greenland into the US, became a real-world option with the US kidnap of Nicolás Maduro and claim to have effective control of Venezuela and its huge oil reserves.

The US naval blockade is a spectacular demonstration of its military power and its stranglehold over Venezuelan oil exports. This undisguised neo-imperialist venture, highly successful so far and facing no effective resistance, has opened up the possibility that the US might undertake similar ventures against Cuba, Colombia, Mexico – or even Greenland. The takeover of the latter, with a population of only 56,000 and with US troops already based there, would not be operationally difficult.

“Nobody’s going to fight the........

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