MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Any discussion of Greenland becoming part of the United States directly contradicts the key principles of the North Atlantic Alliance enshrined in articles 4 and 5 of the bloc’s charter, Military-Political Analysis Bureau head Alexander Mikhailov told TASS.
"This Greenland story is driving a wedge deeper between North Atlantic Alliance members as the Danish themselves are subordinate to the United States at NATO. This once again shows that Article 5 of NATO’s Charter - and Article 4, too - actually become defunct in a situation like this because the United States is separating itself from the other NATO allies," the expert noted.
According to Mikhailov, the rhetoric from the new US administration eying "the defense capabilities" of an allied territory underscores a tectonic shift in how Washington sees its role in the bloc. "The United Stated as a NATO country has transformed into a weapons donor and supplier to Europe. As regards the collective approach, the Americans have placed themselves on a par with the other NATO countries," he explained.
However, this stance undermines the very architecture of the alliance underlying collective defense. "It is the United States that should protect Greenland, a Danish territory, from foreign interference. Paradoxically, the Americans are threatening a NATO-controlled territory and a member of the alliance in which the first fiddle is played by the United States," the expert concluded.