We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday reminded President-elect Donald Trump, who hopes to acquire Greenland, that Russia will protect its “strategic interests” in the Arctic region.

“The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests. We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone,” Peskov said.

“We are watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely, but so far, thank God, at the level of statements,” he said.

Peskov was referring to Trump’s comments that he would like to acquire control of Greenland, possibly as either America’s 51st or 52nd state, depending on how his attempt to annex Canada pans out.

Peskov was incorrect that the acquisition progress has not passed the “level of statements,” since Donald Trump, Jr., was dispatched to Greenland on Tuesday. While Trump, Jr., said he had an “absolutely incredible experience” in that perpetual winter wonderland, he did not return with the deed to Greenland in hand.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that Trump is not the first American leader to suggest taking possession of Greenland, then needled the Europeans for failing to shut Trump down as quickly as previous bidders for the strategic hunk of Arctic real estate.

“Europe reacts very timidly and it is of course scary to react to Trump’s words, therefore Europe reacts very cautiously, modestly, quietly, almost in a whisper,” he said.

The Danes were not really whispering when they rebuffed Trump’s early overtures. King Frederik X made the polar bear representing Greenland larger on his coat of arms last month, a move seen as a jocular but firm denial by watchers of the royal family.

“It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish realm, and that this is not up for discussion. This is how you mark it,” royalty expert Lars Hovbakke Sorensen explained to USA Today on Thursday.

The Faroe Islands are another self-governing Danish territory, represented on the coat of arms by a ram, which also got bigger even though Trump has yet to express any interest in buying the islands.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen politely, but firmly, informed Trump his ambitions with regard to Greenland would never come to pass.

“We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they materialise, Greenland will become independent, though hardly with an ambition to become a federal state in the United States,” Rasmussen said.

“I don’t think that we’re in a foreign policy crisis. We are open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can possibly cooperate even more closely than we do to ensure that the American ambitions are fulfilled,” he said.

Greenland is currently administered by Prime Minister Mute Egede, who said his people are not pushing for independence only to become part of the United States.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” he declared last month, after the first time Trump first floated the idea of taking control.

Other European leaders have been frank in rejecting Trump’s bid for Greenland, especially after Trump refused to rule out the use of economic, or even military, force in a freewheeling Mar-a-Lago press conference on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted on Wednesday that “the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country … no matter whether it’s a very small one, or a very powerful one.”

“There is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Denmark – and, by extension, Greenland – are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whose charter states that all members must regard an attack on any member as an attack on themselves. This would hypothetically be true even if the attack was coming from yet another member of NATO, such as the United States.

The much-discussed Article 5 of NATO’s charter is vaguer than most people think as to exactly what fellow members are required to actually do in the spirit of “collective defense,” mentioning “the use of armed force” as an option, rather than a mandate. Article 5 has only been invoked once, by the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

As Peskov alluded to in his remarks on Thursday, one of the major reasons the U.S. might be interested in acquiring Greenland is its strategic importance as a watchpost for the Arctic, a defensive bulwark for the North American continent, and protection against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched from the direction of Europe.

Greenland also has valuable oil, gas, and mineral resources, but they have gone largely undeveloped due to a combination of environmental concerns, bureaucracy, and opposition to development by the three indigenous Inuit tribes.

The Inuit are by no means a minority in Greenland – they make up about 88 percent of its meager population of 57,000 souls. The official language of Greenland is a combination of Inuit dialects, with Danish as a second language. Very little development or exploration of resources could be conducted without the consent of the Inuit, and they are generally, if not universally, opposed to the idea.

That leaves Greenland’s economy largely based on fishing and highly dependent on subsidies from Denmark, which is a big reason the vast territory’s reasonable ambitions for political independence have always fizzled in the past.

China is a heavy investor in the territory’s existing mining operations, as well as an eager consumer of Greenland’s fish, so Trump’s strategy could yield the double payoff of thwarting both Russian and Chinese interests in the Arctic.

Trump was on solid ground when he said the people of Greenland could “benefit tremendously” by becoming part of America, which would benefit tremendously by acquiring Greenland, and both Russia and China would be losers in the deal, as the Kremlin’s concern suggests. The key questions are whether the people of Greenland are truly determined to gain independence, or stick with Denmark after 600 years, and if they are willing to loosen up on oil, gas, and mineral exploration.