Donald Trump has started the year by persistently highlighting his ambitions to own Greenland, insisting it is necessary for national security.
Greenland, Denmark and the other European nations that are part of NATO, the alliance of 32 North American and European countries, pushed against his plans.
The US president subsequently began making implicit threats of military action, saying he couldn’t rule it out.
He then threatened some European nations – including the UK – with new tariffs if he was blocked from purchasing Greenland.
In a shock move on 21 January, while in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Mr Trump U-turned on his threats, saying he’d had a “very productive” meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte in which they had formed the framework of a future deal with regard to Greenland and the “entire Arctic region”, and the “solution” will be great for the US and all NATO countries.
The details of the supposed framework have not been revealed by Mr Trump or Mr Rutte, while NATO said matters of Greenland’s sovereignty weren’t discussed in the meeting at all.
But why has Mr Trump insisted that the US needs Greenland?
Trump says US ‘needs’ Greenland for national security
Greenland, which is northeast of Canada, is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
Straddling the Arctic Circle between the US, Russia and Europe, the island of just 57,000 people offers a unique geopolitical advantage that America has eyed for more than 150 years.
The idea of taking Greenland is not a new one for Mr Trump, either, who raised the possibility during his first term when he said he had considered purchasing it.
But he has since reiterated the benefits it could have for America’s national security and has strengthened his rhetoric.
He has said it is “very important for the national security of the United States, Europe, and other parts of the free world”.
The shortest distance between Russia and the US tracks over Greenland, making its location a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system.
Greenland is also already home to a large US military base, called the Pituffik Space Base.
Another US concern is in the sea – specifically the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and Northwest Passage (NWP) – according to Sky News’ military analyst Sean Bell.
He says global warming is melting Greenland’s ice sheet and opening up new trade routes that have historically been frozen and impassable for most of the year.
It means that new, cheaper routes for shipping goods from Europe to Japan are opening around Greenland.
“Ensuring freedom of passage on these new trade routes is a US security concern,” Bell says.
Is there really a national security threat in Greenland?
Mr Trump has suggested there are immediate threats to the US and NATO countries in Greenland.
He previously mocked local efforts to defend the sparsely populated island, saying “they added one more dog sled” that would be no match for the “Russian and Chinese ships” he claimed were “all over the place” around the territory.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, is among experts who have rubbished Mr Trump’s claims that Russian and Chinese ships are posing a threat around Greenland.
“There is no acute problem to solve – the Chinese and Russian ships that he keeps talking about are a figment of his imagination,” Dr Jakobsen told Sky News.
“There is no security threat to Greenland,” he added, explaining that China does not operate warships and submarines in the Arctic and that while Russia may operate the odd submarine near Greenland on occasion, “that is it”.
In fact, he says, there is currently no external threat to Greenland “save the US one”.
The US military already has de facto military control of Greenland, as it has since the Second World War.
“The existing base agreement with Greenland and Denmark gives the US permission to expand their military presence in Greenland and establish new bases if they perceive it as necessary,” he says.
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He says Mr Trump would only have to “consult and inform” Nuuk and Copenhagen to strengthen the US military in Greenland, yet he has not done so.
Dr Jakobsen says this suggests that the US president’s annexation goals have nothing to do with national security.
Rich in natural resources
Greenland holds rich deposits of various natural resources.
Locked inside the island’s ice are valuable rare earth minerals needed for telecommunications, as well as uranium, billions of untapped barrels of oil and a vast supply of natural gas that used to be inaccessible but is becoming less so.
Many of the same minerals are currently mostly supplied by China, so countries including the US are interested in tapping into available resources closer to home.
Dr Jakobsen says Mr Trump wants full control over Greenland’s resources and that this is the purpose of his annexation goals.
He says there is a “clear parallel” between this and the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela, when the US targeted its capital and captured President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Trump has been unambiguous in comments suggesting that Venezuela’s huge oil reserves were a motivation for the removal of Maduro.
“If Venezuela was not so rich on oil, Trump probably would not have launched the attack,” says Dr Jakobsen.
Mr Trump has denied that resources are a factor in his aim of running Greenland, saying his sole concern is national security.
