Greenland dispute distracts West from real threat – expert

Andreas Umland, an expert at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS), said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"Unfortunately, this entire story with Greenland is now a distraction from the real challenges for the West, including the United States and Europe," Umland said.

He recalled that the real challenge is Russia's war against Ukraine, which is an attack on a pro-Western country not only by Russia, but also with direct support from Iran and North Korea and indirect support from China.

"This is the real conflict that these Western countries are in on the territory of Ukraine against an anti-Western global coalition, but they are now distracted by this internal quarrel around Greenland, which is senseless because Denmark is one of the closest allies of the United States," Umland said.

He added that in reality, there are no limits to cooperation between the two countries – the United States and Denmark – on Greenland, both militarily and economically.

The expert believes it is not appropriate at this point to speak of European countries preparing for war against the United States. "I don't think this is where we are so far. And I would hope that it doesn't come to this," he said.

According to him, this "strange development" now dominates headlines. While it does not completely displace tragic news about Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure during a very cold winter – such as the latest strike on the night of January 19-20 – it pushes such reports "to the second line or third page," because the Greenland issue is dominating the news.

In his opinion, countries that are among Ukraine's strongest supporters – including Denmark, the Scandinavian states and other European nations – are being forced to divert attention away from Ukraine.

"And in that sense, this is a very unfortunate moment now for such a ridiculous conflict within NATO. […] That's why this is unfortunately especially unfortunate," Umland said.

He also stressed that Russian state television and media are virtually "celebrating" the entire story.

"This is exactly what Russia needs - that the NATO countries get into a quarrel among themselves. And thereby the unity of NATO and the attention of NATO and the member countries is undermined," the expert said.

He expressed hope that responsible decision-makers in various Western countries, including the United States, will see this devastating effect for the current confrontation within which all Western countries, including the United States, are now. The fact that they fail to see the real threat and instead are distracted by pointless disputes within the alliance is really bizarre, Umland said.

On Monday, January 19, Denmark sent additional troops to Greenland after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to rule out the use of force to seize control of the island. Trump later repeated, following a conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, that Greenland is extremely important for U.S. national and global security.

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