Yeah, but Google wouldn’t want any part of that type of arrangement. Better to let it go un-associated with the country than to depend on some other party that can extort at renewal time.

Can’t Domain name providers do pretty much the same thing? You’re only leasing a domain after all...

They generally have a reputation to uphold so others don't just get up and leave.

Some rando leasing it to you can do whatever they want without worrying about any of that.

There are 30k people in Gibraltar and probably most of them use the .com or .uk domain.

.co.uk