Trump’s push to acquire Greenland almost broke NATO. The winner of it all may be ... Greenland

BERLIN (AP) — In the end, it was all kisses and laughter as President Donald Trump hailed his “fantastic” relationship with Denmark and Greenland after signing a new security deal that America’s European allies hope will close one of the most dangerous chapters in transatlantic relations.

Trump’s territorial ambitions over Greenland almost broke the NATO military alliance and shattered trust with one of America’s oldest and closest partners. The new defense agreement puts an end to the standoff. But was it worth the cost?

While the new defense agreement is a bit broader, the United States already had extensive military access under an existing 1951 deal and all the gains laid out in the agreement signed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday could, ostensibly, have been achieved by asking nicely a year ago. The trans-Atlantic distrust created since the end of 2024 seems a very high price to pay for what may ultimately be a fairly incremental gain.

Interestingly, one place may emerge from this standoff as the real winner: Greenland itself.

The promised investments and contracts may never fully materialize, but the episode marks a major step forward in its push for greater autonomy and a more influential seat at the table. Greenland is no longer merely the subject of foreign policy decided by its former colonial rulers. Increasingly, it is helping to shape it.

“A notable change is Greenland itself at the table today, signing this agreement," said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen speaking to a room cram packed with journalists and officials at the UN to witness the signing of the deal.

That's an understatement. The world’s largest island, home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people, was still considered a colony until the early 1950s. Progress towards greater self-determination has been slow and it wasn't until 2009 that Greenland became a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Even then, while the Self-Government Act recognized Greenland’s right to independence when requested by local voters in the future, Denmark retained control of defense and foreign affairs.

“I cannot stress it enough: This is the first time that we are venturing into a binding agreement as a country," Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s two lawmakers in the Danish parliament and a former government minister in Nuuk, told The Associated Press. “That is a huge step forward in our quest for more self-autonomy.”

Like most former colonial powers that discover history keeps receipts, Denmark's ties with Greenland are complicated. Greenland's economy is heavily dependent on Denmark, families and students often live between the two territories and the cultural linguistic ties are strong. Yet underwriting modern relations are centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families.

They included forced contraception, the removal of Inuit children for reeducation by Danish foster families, and controversial parental-competency tests that led to children being separated from their parents.

“For many, many years you believed that you were a good colonizer,” Múte Bourup Egede, then Greenland's prime minister and now its foreign minister, reminded Danish journalists early last year, shortly after a newly elected Trump made his first military threat against the island. “But time has also caught up with us, and ... cruel things have come to light.”

The abuses are not distant history; many victims remain alive. Hundreds of Inuit women have claimed compensation from Denmark, alleging that health authorities violated their rights by fitting them with intrauterine devices — often when they were teenagers and without their informed consent. Danish authorities estimate that as many as 4,500 women and girls received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s.

While the first official apology for the historic mistreatment had long been coming it was finally delivered in the summer of 2025.

The standoff with the United States “has been applying pressure and focused some of the Danish attention” on reconciliation with Greenland said Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, but “perhaps, some Greenlanders feel that it’s not as credible as it could have been without Trump.”

While Denmark moved to address past grievances, anger with Trump's tactics also helped shore up support for its sovereignty and take the edge off calls by some in Greenland for quick moves to independence.

At the height of the crisis over Trump's ambitions in January, Nielsen said that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO."

For Denmark, the main victory is no doubt getting the US president off its back and succeeding in framing the crisis as a European security problem.

Danish and Greenlandic diplomats “have been working very hard to have European allies be part of this," Pram Gad said. "The result is an attempt to patch together the NATO alliance.”

And while Denmark has accepted some limitations to its sovereignty, investments by adversary countries such as Russia had long been off the table.

“The benefit of keeping the transatlantic alliance, or patching it together, or at least not allowing Greenland to be the occasion for Trump to blow it up, I think that counts heavily on both the Danish and the Greenlandic cost-benefit analysis here,” he said.

After Tuesday’s signing ceremony, relief was palpable. But while the Danish and Greenland delegations celebrated with a cold beer on a rooftop bar in Manhattan, the Greenland crisis has scarred a once undefiable bond. It leaves leaders in Copenhagen, Nuuk and other European capitals now assessing the reliability of the United States — and whether a signed agreement can repair trust once it has been broken.

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Greenland's leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, second left, and Greenland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Múte B. Egede, foreground left, have a beer with delegation members at a bar in Manhattan, New York after an agreement with the US was signed, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

FILE - Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - People protest against Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, right, as Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, watches at a security agreement signing ceremony during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland's government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visit Qoornoq, Greenland on Sept. 6, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

FILE - People take part in a march ending in front of the US consulate, under the slogan, Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people, in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday March 15, 2025. (Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Southwestern Mexico braced for coastal flooding and mudslides Wednesday after Polo, a powerful Pacific cyclone, became a major hurricane. Forecasters also warned that Hawaii could face another onslaught of harsh weather later in the week.

Hurricane Polo, an “extremely dangerous” storm, is expected to skirt Mexico’s Guerrero state, submerging coastal areas with 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain through Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Guerrero has been repeatedly pummeled by hurricanes in recent years.

Polo, which was swirling a couple of hundred miles off the coast Wednesday afternoon, was not expected to make landfall, meteorologists and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Rain and strong winds had already started to pummel the coast, with waves crashing onto the normally pristine beaches.

Tropical storm conditions including torrential rain and extraordinary wind were also expected along the Pacific coast of Michoacan and Colima states through Thursday.

At its peak, Polo was a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 kph). It was a Category 4 by Wednesday afternoon, but still packing sustained winds of up to 145 mph (230 kph).

“Fluctuations in intensity are expected, but Polo is expected to remain a very powerful major hurricane during the next few days,” the hurricane center said.

Concepción López Villegas was busily bolstering her seaside restaurant in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, against the expected onslaught of rain. Strong waves were already hitting some beaches and López Villegas said she feared the storm could destroy the small business she worked decades to build.

“We’re worried and trying to protect our businesses,” López Villegas said. “And of course, we’re sad because it’s our heritage, our legacy that from one moment to another could be destroyed.”

The hurricane center warned that Polo's deluge could cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides, in particular in Guerrero.

The region most under threat from the hurricane is rural and mountainous, scattered with a few small tourist towns and ports. Much of the area is marked by poverty and residents routinely complain authorities abandon them to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

Mexico’s government has called for evacuations in some areas and set up shelters for those affected. Thousands of military and Red Cross personnel have been deployed to the region as a preventative measure.

Philip Klotzbach, research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, attributed Polo's rapid intensification to the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, which has fueled crippling droughts in Mexico and Central America and floods elsewhere.

In the Pacific, it has resulted in warmer waters and wind patterns that act as fodder for hurricanes, he said.

“There are all the ingredients that hurricanes need to get really strong really fast,” Klotzbach said.

The National Weather Service said Wednesday afternoon that Tropical Storm Nolo was forming 310 miles (500 kilometers) south-southwest of Big Island in Hawaii with sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph).

The weather service warned it become a hurricane by Thursday.

The hurricane center advised the island chain to monitor the system, which was projected to drop 15 to 20 inches (38 to 51 centimeters) of rain on Big Island, raising the possibility of flooding and mudslides.

The center of the cyclone was expected to close in on the islands by Friday or Saturday.

While wind and rain were mainly expected on Maui and Big Island, Kauai’s electric cooperative urged residents to prepare for “the possibility of prolonged power outages,” and to store non-perishable food and potable water.

Over 100 Kauai households remain without power from Hurricane Lowell, which passed west of the island on Sept. 7.

Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews would return to at-risk areas to help residents prepare for the coming storm.

Hurricane Odalys, also in the Pacific, strengthened on Wednesday, carrying maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). It churned about 1,265 miles (2,040 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and was not at risk of making landfall, according to the hurricane center.

An advisory said Odalys could increase in strength over the next couple of days but would likely weaken by the end of the week.

Brooks reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Gabriela Aoun in San Diego contributed.

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Odalys in the Pacific Ocean, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo strengthening in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo intensifying in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (NOAA via AP)