Europe is struggling to dispel Trump's ambitions regarding Greenland, but there are still people stoking the fire.

Recently, the President of Croatia, Milanović, made an astonishing statement during an interview: he suggested that Trump should shift his attention from Denmark's Greenland to Norway's Svalbard Islands, as Greenland "has no value," while Svalbard has "strategic value."

Milanović even joked that he didn't know whether Trump had ever seen Svalbard on a map... Greenland has no value at all — these words sound like a joke, but in reality, they directly put another European country's territory on Trump's "purchase list."

Milanović suggests that Svalbard is more cost-effective

The "Svalbard Islands" that Milanović mentioned are located in the Arctic Ocean, between the Barents Sea and the Greenland Sea. Although the island is Norwegian territory, the Svalbard Treaty stipulates that all signatory countries have the right to engage in scientific research and commercial activities on the island, and China and Russia are two of the signatories. China established its first Arctic research station, the Yellow River Station, on Svalbard in 2004 according to this treaty.

Therefore, Milanović's real intention is very straightforward: since Trump wants to find a place with "strategic value" in the Arctic, compared to Denmark's Greenland, it would be better to take over Norway's Svalbard Islands — this island has greater strategic significance, and China and Russia have real personnel and facilities on the island. If the United States intervenes extensively, it would perfectly achieve Trump's goal of "expelling Chinese and Russian forces." It's a win-win situation.

Location of the Svalbard Islands

Although Milanović thought this way, his words caused a storm in Norwegian media. Almost all Norwegian media criticized Milanović's remarks as extremely disrespectful and lacking basic diplomatic skills. Even the State Secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Evine Vård Pederse, emphasized that Svalbard is Norwegian territory and cannot be compared with Greenland.

More embarrassing was that when Milanović was making his remarks, the Croatian Minister of Defense, Anušić, was visiting Norway, which forced him to immediately distance himself, saying an even more absurd statement: "Milanović's remarks do not represent the government's position" — yes, the president of Croatia said something that could not represent the government of Croatia.

Trump: There's also a surprise?

This is the political literacy of contemporary European politicians. Trump's desire for Greenland is essentially not just bullying a small country, but a humiliation of the entire Europe — Trump treats ally territories as assets that can be bought and sold, which is equivalent to trampling on Europe's face.

Europe should have taken this opportunity to show unity, clearly telling Trump "Europe is not easy to bully," but instead, a president of a European country came out at this time to help Trump "calculate carefully," comparing which territory is more "cost-effective" for the United States — it's really very ridiculous.

Back then, Britain and France appeased Nazi Germany; now Macron is also appeasing Trump

It is more ironic that this kind of appeasement thinking is not an exception. On January 19, Trump publicly exposed a private message sent by French President Macron to him, which included Macron trying to divert Trump's attention from Greenland to Iran — in the message, Macron claimed he "didn't understand what Trump was doing in Greenland," and France could cooperate with the US to "do many things on the issue of Iran."

This statement sounds ambiguous. It can be interpreted as France's willingness to assist in resuming nuclear talks with Iran, or it can be understood as support for stronger sanctions or even military options against Iran by the US.

But regardless of the interpretation, it can't escape Europe's long-standing logic of "shifting the burden": when Trump is sharpening his knives, Europe dares not confront him directly, nor does it dare to clearly say "no," so it uses other issues to gain breathing space.

If Europe continues to squabble, calculate individually, and even fawn over Trump, it will only encourage Trump's greed in the end.



Original: toutiao.com/article/7597387310249869870/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.