International Editorial.- Donald Trump’s annexationist ambition regarding Greenland has encountered the commitment of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to mediate in order to find a solution in this regard and with a firmer response from the European Union, which warns that its reaction will be “proportional”.
The different parties may have the opportunity to address the case face to face during the presence of the American president in Europe, where on Wednesday he will speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) and on Thursday, if he accepts, he has been summoned by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to a G7 meeting in Paris and a dinner before his return to the U.S..
Trump insisted this Tuesday that taking control of Greenland is “imperative” for the security of both his country and the world. In an image generated by artificial intelligence and posted on his network, Truth Social, he went further by already reflecting that island as U.S. territory, with the Stars and Stripes planted on its rocky soil.
According to a screenshot he himself posted on that platform, Rutte has assured him in a message that he is committed to finding a solution.
“I look forward to seeing you. Yours, Mark,” he says in that exchange of a complacent tone.
Macron has been less understanding, indicating that he does not understand what he is doing in Greenland, as reflected in another text also leaked by Trump and later confirmed by the Elysée. However, he has proposed to bring together in Paris after Davos the other members of the G7 (Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom), and also invite Ukrainians, Syrians, Danes and Russians.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, made it clear this Tuesday that the EU’s response to annexationist pressures will be “firm, united and proportionate”.
“We consider the people of the U.S. not only as allies, but as friends. Dragging ourselves into a dangerous downward spiral would only help the adversaries that we are both so committed to keeping out of our strategic landscape. Our response will be firm, united, and proportional,” he said in his public address in Davos.
California Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, had warned Europeans this Tuesday that Trump was “taking them for fools” and that they must adapt their diplomacy to the “law of the jungle” that the American has implemented: “This guy is not crazy; he is very deliberate, but he is unleashed and out of control, and that demands that one react,” he also pointed out in Switzerland.
Denmark’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Stephanie Lose, has urged its European partners not to “rule out” any possible response to Trump’s “threats” to take control of Greenland, although she has also called for “insisting” on dialogue to avoid an escalation.
Greenland is an autonomous territory under Danish sovereignty. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied today that it is an “original part” of Denmark.
He recalled that the Arctic island was a Norwegian colony from the 13th century and Danish from the 19th, and that “only in the mid-20th century was an agreement signed under which it became part of Denmark not as a colony”.
The possibility of Russia or China taking control of that island if it does not come under US control is the argument that has led Trump for weeks to demand annexation “by hook or by crook”.
Faced with the EU’s refusal to yield to its pressures, it has threatened to impose 10% tariffs from February 1st on products from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark, NATO members that had sent troops to Greenland. That figure could increase to 25% from June if it persists in its attitude.
The EU employers’ organization, BusinessEurope, warned this Tuesday that the imposition of new taxes by the US on partners who reject the US plan would “seriously” undermine transatlantic relations: “Additional tariffs will not benefit anyone,” added its statement.
Meanwhile, the Republican leader reiterated this Tuesday on Truth Social, in one of his usual posts riddled with capital letters and exclamation marks, that “Denmark and its European allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING”.
