Aqqaluk Lynge is talking about a previous offer from the US to buy the island as he pores over a map of the Arctic, when a warship suddenly appears outside his window.

“It’s not the Americans,” says the pioneer of Greenland’s home-rule movement with a laugh, looking out on to the fjord in Nuuk. The ageing patrol boat is Danish, intended to protect its sovereignty over the world’s largest non-continental island, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

US President Donald Trump’s renewed interest in taking control of Greenland has thrust this vast, frozen landmass of just 57,000 people into the geopolitical spotlight. Offers to buy Greenland are nothing new — Washington first made enquiries in 1867 — but this latest attempt, in which Trump has refused to rule out using military force against a Nato ally, has thrown Denmark and the EU into crisis.