Greenland is back in American headlines - and this time not as a tweet. The US and Denmark are currently in secret talks over expanding the American military presence on the island, according to the BBC. The negotiators have met at least five times since mid-January.

Washington's request - three new military bases in southern Greenland. A semi-autonomous Danish territory. The diplomatic push is a direct answer to the crisis Trump created back in January, when he said the US needed to „own" Greenland to keep it out of Russian or Chinese hands. „It can be the easy way or the hard way", was his famous formula.

The White House confirmed there are high-level conversations with Greenland and Denmark, without details. The Danish foreign ministry acknowledges „an active diplomatic channel", but refuses public explanations. There is an unwritten official rule: some things get resolved better with a signature than with a microphone.

What are the American negotiators asking for? According to sources close to the talks, the three new bases would be declared American sovereign territory. This is not a „joint base". This is a slice of Greenland operating under American jurisdiction, with American law. One of the locations is likely to be Narsarsuaq, a former US military base with existing airfield infrastructure.

None of this is entirely new. During the Cold War the US had 17 military installations on Greenland. Today only one is operational - Pituffik in the north-west, serving the NORAD early-warning system. From 17 to 1, and now back towards 4. It is a cycle that depends on who is being perceived as the threat.

The talks are being led by Michael Needham from the State Department, balancing Trump's ambitions with Denmark's reservations. The irony - Trump's own special envoy for Greenland rarely shows up at the actual meetings.

The Balkan perspective - when a great power asks for „bases", it is never only about bases. It is a territorial ambition with an official stamp. The Balkans know this from Camp Bondsteel and Bosnia. And whenever a signature lands, the local population is the last to learn what their state has just done with them.