Why is President Trump’s interest in Greenland a potential threat to NATO?
Why is President Donald Trump’s interest in Greenland a potential threat to NATO?
President Donald Trump is on his way to the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, where he is likely to reassert his claim to expand U.S. territory in the biggest way in decades by acquiring Denmark’s territory of Greenland.
He may receive a frosty reception.
President Trump is scheduled to deliver a keynote address and meet with world leaders at the summit. If he doesn’t get his way, he has threatened to impose a 10% tariff on “any and all goods” imported into the United States from eight European countries starting February 1. European officials say they fear a new trade war and are prepared to fight back. President Trump has said that if no deal is reached to buy the Arctic islands, tariffs will rise to 25% on June 1.
European Union official Ursula von der Leyen said on January 21 that Europe “wants dialogue and solutions, but is fully prepared to act with unity, urgency and determination if necessary.” One idea European officials are considering is a so-called anti-coercion measure that would see the EU impose steep tariffs worth $107 billion on U.S. products such as bourbon, aircraft parts, soybeans and chicken.
NATO leaders have also warned that if President Trump’s Greenland strategy ends in military action, which he has not ruled out, it could upend or even end the alliance that has underpinned Western security since the end of World War II. President Trump has publicly linked his interest in Greenland to his anger at not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He also said the United States needs the island because of encroaching regional threats from China and Russia.
Greenlandic and Danish officials have repeatedly said in increasingly harsh terms that Greenland is not for sale. And polls show that the majority of Greenlanders do not want to become part of the United States.
“We don’t want to be Americans,” Greenland’s Minister of Commerce Naaja Nathanielsen said on January 21.
In a speech at Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to countries less powerful than the United States to “must act together” because “the old order is not coming back.” Although Carney did not mention Trump by name, his speech appeared to be aimed squarely at Trump’s approach to Greenland.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Denmark is ‘irrelevant’
The last major expansion of U.S. territory occurred in 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. President Trump is also expected to talk about the US economy in his speech at Davos. Before leaving for Switzerland, President Trump said he was planning “a number of meetings” in Davos to discuss the Greenland issue, sounding optimistic that an agreement would eventually be reached.
“I think we’ll work something out where NATO is very happy and we’re very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security,” he said.
President Trump was late to attend a global gathering of business, government and cultural elites because of electrical problems on Air Force One. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has already visited Davos amid Europe’s concerns about Greenland, said on January 21, “Why can’t Europe just sit back and wait for President Trump to make a speech?”
Bessent also appeared to brand Denmark “irrelevant” in connection with a report by Deutsche Bank analysts featured in the Financial Times suggesting that Europe may be less inclined to continue buying U.S. debt unless the Greenland issue is resolved.
“Like Denmark itself, the size of Denmark’s investment in U.S. debt is irrelevant,” Bessent told reporters on the sidelines of Davos. “It’s less than $100 million. They’ve been selling bonds for years. I’m not worried at all.”
Global stock markets fell for a fourth day in a row, with some indicators of market stress remaining elevated following yesterday’s global bond selloff as President Donald Trump’s threat to take over Greenland kept investors on alert.
