THERE should be little doubt that the United States intends to take possession of Greenland, a Danish-owned, self-governed territory, by hook or by crook.

The US will either do this through a shabby financial deal against the wishes of the people of Greenland or it will simply announce that it now belongs to them.

Last Friday Greenland’s party leaders rejected US President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take control of the territory, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people.

In a joint statement Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said: “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders.”

Trump said again on Friday that he wanted to buy Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of Denmark — a member of the Nato military alliance — “the easy way.”

The US president argues that if the US doesn’t own it, then Russia or China would take Greenland over.

Trump then added: “If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.” There is no doubt that this is threatening a military action against Greenland and Denmark.

Greenland’s party leaders have rightly insisted that “Greenland’s future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”

A statement from the four leaders, Nielsen, Pele Broberg, Mute B Egede, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C Jerimiassen, said: “We must decide the future of our country ourselves, without pressure for quick decision, delay or interference from other countries.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also warned that a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of Nato.

But none of this is likely to matter to Trump.

Nor will the recent survey in Greenland, showing that 85 per cent of Greenlanders do not want to become Americans. They rightly judge that the standard of living in Denmark, of which Greenland is a part, is much higher than that of the gangster-run US.

Greenland also has universal access to medical care — an absolute no-no to the US. The people of the territory also cite the high crime rates of the US as compared to their own.

While Greenland is the largest island in the world, it has a population of around 57,000 and doesn’t have its own military. The defence of the territory is provided by Denmark, whose military is, of course, dwarfed by that of the US.

There is also talk that the US would be prepared to bribe Greenlanders with $1 million and even a Tesla car each — provided courtesy of billionaire Elon Musk — to join the “land of the free.”

If the bribes don’t work and the Danes and their European partners refuse to play ball then the US has not ruled out using military force to occupy Greenland.

The recent kidnapping by the US of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 has emboldened an already arrogant Trump administration to get cracking with the take over of Greenland.

The fact that this will likely spell the end of the Nato military alliance, of which Denmark is a member and the US the dominant partner, is neither here nor there to the US. It has been very clear that any organisation that does not serve the interests of Washington will be dropped like a hot stone.

The day after Maduro’s kidnapping, Trump couldn’t have been clearer. He told The Atlantic: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”

The far-right White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller underlined the position when he also made it clear that “Greenland should be part of the United States.”

So what would happen if the US decided to take over Greenland — because it seems highly improbable that there can be any legitimate sale of the territory?

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has predicted the move would spell the end of the Nato military bloc.

She said: “If the US decides to attack another Nato country, then everything would stop — that includes Nato and therefore post-World War II security.”

The demise of Nato would indeed be a silver lining. But, what is clear is that despite European posturing over the last week article five of the Nato treaty, which commits allies to mutual defence in the event of an attack is, frankly, is almost certainly not going to be used by any Nato country against the US.

The Europeans have done precisely nothing to rein in the constant excesses of Trump. After the illegal attack on Venezuela, European leaders, with the honourable exception of Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, sought to manufacture bogus arguments that the actions were justified because they believed Maduro to be an illegitimate president.

When Trump first mentioned his intentions for Greenland last year, France sent a nuclear submarine off Canada’s shores to put him on notice that the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland are French sovereign territories.

This just added to how pathetic the Macron regime is seen as both at home and abroad. Nobody believed for a moment that France was going to seriously confront the US.

The sad truth is that Trump will likely succeed in pushing Europe out of what he sees as his hemisphere because the Europeans will again reveal their lack of a backbone to stand up to bully-boy Trump.

Another reality is that the US already has full permission — from as far back as 1953 — from Denmark to establish military bases, bring in equipment and personnel, fly aircraft and sail ships in and out of Greenland.

The US also operates a radar station in Pituffik, providing early warning of ballistic missiles flying over the North Pole from Russia.

The ice in the Arctic is continuing to melt due to the climate crisis that Trump and his allies claim doesn’t exist. This has allowed the volume of commercial shipping across the North Pole to increase by at least ninefold over the last decade or so.

This opens the possibility that military shipping could also increase in the area.

The Panama Canal is also a critical part of the equation — providing commercial and military sea passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Greenland is a vital, largely untapped, site for the mining of rare earth resources that fuel the economy of the US and military-industrial complex. This has been covered many times in these pages.

But we should also understand the wider attempt by the US to secure its full spectrum dominance of the western hemisphere. It will use that as a foundation to exert its control over the rest of the planet. To achieve this the US wants to create a Greater US.

Greenland is the next in line, followed by what’s not already within US control in Central and South America. Mexico and Canada should also both be aware of what’s planned for them.

One thing’s for sure is that the Europeans will do nothing to stand in Trump’s way. This spells danger for us all.