The EU and Nato have taken a vow of silence over Greenland after Denmark requested its key allies refrain from reacting to Donald Trump’s threats to seize the Arctic island.

Mads Petersen, owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus 43 degrees Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit).

When Trump began rambling on about seizing Greenland on Jan. 7, most non-Americans saw it as a typical Trump stratagem to unsettle potential adversaries. He threatened to re-invade Panama and annex Canada at the same chaotic press conference, and the grown-ups elsewhere assumed that none of it needed to be taken seriously.

Greenland is protected by NATO’s Article 5 which invokes mutual defence in the case of any armed attack or invasion, the Finnish foreign minister has said. According to Elina Valtonen, Article 5 is extended to Greenland as an autonomous territory of Denmark,

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen agreed at a meeting on Tuesday that allies need to focus on strengthening defences in the Arctic, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

"Looking at the good points in the conversation about this, it seems that the United States is determined to organise the defence and security of the Arctic region," Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized the need for stronger Arctic defenses during their meeting on Tuesday, a source told Reuters. Both leaders agreed that all

Former Denmark minister to Greenland Tom Høyem has told ABC news that if Denmark was to ever sell Greenland to any other country, the UK would receive the first right to buy it. He claimed that president Donald Trump could face a competing claim from the U.

Rather than appeal to Denmark’s goodwill, President Trump’s rhetoric risks trapping the U.S. in a cycle of increasing coercion.

Denmark’s prime minister is on a tour of major European capitals as the continent faces what she called “a more uncertain reality” and her country moves to strengthen its military presence around Greenland.

Russia and China have stepped up military activity in the Arctic, while NATO states in the region are reporting more acts of sabotage on energy and communications lines. President Donald Trump has recently revived U.