US President Donald Trump continues to ruffle European feathers. In his latest remark, Trump said Denmark has failed to eliminate the Russian threat from Greenland, and now the US could take action!
“NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get the Russian threat away from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!” he wrote on the Truth Social platform.
Meanwhile, President Trump told the Norwegian prime minister in a message published Monday that the world would not be secure unless the US controlled the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.
“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump said in the message to Jonas Gahr Store.
Earlier, European leaders slammed Trump’s threat of tariffs over the United States’ plans to seize Greenland.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he had spoken to Trump about “the security situation in Greenland and the Arctic” and hoped to talk again at this week’s Davos summit. He did not elaborate on their conversation.
The European Council said it was calling a summit of EU leaders in the coming days, following a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels on Sunday.
Trade Deal
The bloc clinched a deal with Washington in July, under which most EU exports face a 15-percent US levy. It was unclear how Trump’s threatened tariffs would work against that deal.
“I don’t believe that this agreement is possible in the current situation,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told ARD television.
Aides to French President Emmanuel Macron said he would ask the EU to activate a never-before-used “anti-coercion instrument” against Washington if Trump implements additional tariffs.
This measure allows for curbing imports of goods and services into the EU, a market of 27 countries with a combined population of 450 million.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to seize Greenland since returning to the White House for a second term.
His rhetoric towards that goal has hardened since he ordered a military operation against Venezuela early this month to capture its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Trump and his officials have asserted that Greenland coming under US rule would serve US “national security”. They also reasoned that Denmark, a fellow NATO member, would be unable to defend Greenland should Russia or China ever seek to invade.
Denmark and several of its European NATO allies recently sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland for an exercise, to which the US was also invited.
And on Saturday, thousands of people in Greenland and Denmark protested against the US push to control the Arctic island.
“Make America Go Away” read the wording on caps worn by many demonstrators, riffing on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Trump responded Saturday with a threat to slap 10% tariffs on goods entering the US from Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland, starting February 1.
They would rise to 25 percent from June 1 “until such time as a deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland”, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Even Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest European allies, criticized the threat. “I believe that imposing new sanctions today would be a mistake,” she told journalists during a trip to Seoul.
“I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think,” she added.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it “completely wrong” and said he planned to discuss the situation with Trump “at the earliest opportunity”.
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel denounced Trump’s threat as an “inexplicable” form of “blackmail”.
Trade War?
France’s Agricultural Minister Annie Genevard warned that tariffs would hurt Washington too.
“In this escalation of tariffs, (Trump) has a lot to lose as well, as do his own farmers and industrialists,” she told broadcasters Europe 1 and CNews.
Norway, also targeted by Trump’s tariff threat but, like Britain, not an EU member, said it was not currently considering retaliatory measures against US goods.
“I think one needs to stop and think so that a trade war can be averted that would lead to a downward spiral,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told NRK television. “Nobody would win.”
Via Agence France-Presse
Edited by ET Online Desk
