On Sunday US president Donald Trump said he needed Greenland “very badly”. It’s a sentiment he expressed during his first term, but what then sounded like something of a fantasy wishlist has now hardened into policy.

Reaction to Trump’s intentions has taken on some urgency following his removal by military force of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, last weekend,

Quite how he might move to take over the vast Arctic territory is unclear.

This week the White House said the use ‍of the US military is “always an option”; it also said it might seek to buy the island from Denmark.

Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom. Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has said an attack by the US on a Nato ally – Greenland as part of Denmark – would mean the end of the alliance.

But in a week that saw the Trump administration doubling down on its intention to take over the mineral rich island, the EU is scrabbling to respond to the threats from Washington in a way Trump might take seriously, as Brussels-based Irish Times reporter Jack Power explains.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

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Crime Alert 02.25.21