Danish commentators on Saturday cast a deal announced by US President Donald Trump to give Washington control over Greenland's security as a diplomatic win for Copenhagen.
Since returning to the White House last January, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needed Greenland -- an autonomous Danish territory -- for strategic reasons, triggering months of tension with NATO ally Denmark and concern across Europe.
Trump on Friday said the US, Denmark and Greenland had struck a deal giving Washington permanent control over Greenland's security and barring Russia and China from setting up bases in the Arctic territory.
The exact terms of the deal are unclear, but Denmark maintains it does not affect its sovereignty.
While Trump hailed the accord as "a dream come true for the United States of America", Danish commentators were quick to argue that Copenhagen had emerged largely unscathed.
"Shhh. Don't tell Trump that it's the Kingdom of Denmark that has prevailed," US correspondent Jacob Heinel Jensen wrote in the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
"The craziest thing is that ministers, diplomats and civil servants have managed to sell it to Trump as a major personal triumph," he added.
Spectacular defeat
Commentators also noted that Washington was already able to ramp up its military presence on the island provided it informs Denmark and Greenland in advance, under a 1951 defence pact, updated in 2004.
Marc Jacobsen, a researcher at the Royal Danish Defence College, told AFP that, based on what is known so far, the deal appeared to benefit all three parties.
"Donald Trump gets out of it that he can appear as a winner. He has been a good businessman who has pushed Denmark and Greenland into something new," Jacobsen said.
"From experience, we know that he has to come across as a winner, not least on the home front, if he's going to be able to get out of this."
That was particularly important, Jacobsen argued, with Trump facing both an unpopular war with Iran and a trade war with Canada.
"He has no need to open yet another front against Greenland, and possibly a trade war with the EU," Jacobsen said, referring to concerns raised by remarks Trump made earlier this year.
For Greenland, an "important win" would be additional economic compensation linked to an expanded US military presence, the researcher noted.
"On the Danish side, this will mainly be about appearing as a good partner, both for Greenland and for the United States," he said.
Torsten Jansen, a US commentator for broadcaster TV2, argued Trump did not appear to have secured anything he could not likely have gotten through conventional diplomacy.
"Even though Trump is trying to blare it out as a victory, it is, as I see it, a spectacular defeat," said Jansen, according to TV2.
Move on
In practical terms, Jacobsen said a deal meant talk of the US annexing Greenland "was no longer on the table", but, from Trump's description of it, it would also not change much on the ground.
During the Cold War, the US maintained as many as 25,000 troops and 17 military bases on Greenland, meaning a military build-up was already possible, he explained.
Trump also stressed that the deal would prevent adversaries, specifically China and Russia, from setting up bases on the island.
But Jacobsen pointed out that Denmark had already blocked a Chinese company from buying a former military base in Greenland in 2016.
In Copenhagen, Kathrine Rasmussen, a 47-year-old lawyer, told AFP she hoped the deal would allow the issue to be put to rest.
"It would be nice if we could end these discussions. At least that would be a good outcome, so we can move on," she said.