Greenland disaster: Europe wants the US, but it surely additionally wants to face as much as Trump | Greenland

The disaster over Greenland could ship the second when Europe should stand as much as Donald Trump, as officers have stated a US try to annex the territory might shatter the Nato transatlantic alliance.

European leaders have entertained Trump’s calls for for practically a yr as he has pushed Nato international locations to extend their defence spending to five% of GDP, and threatened to drag US help from Ukraine as a part of a peace course of that seems to favour Russia. They’ve additionally given a muted response to US adventurism overseas together with the seize and rendition of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

The obsequiousness has usually performed out in public. Varied European leaders have vied for the function of “Trump whisperer” and Nato’s secretary basic, Mark Rutte, infamously referred to him as “daddy” at a summit final June.

However Trump’s’ repeated and more and more bellicose calls for that Denmark cede or promote him semi-autonomous Greenland has sparked one of many biggest crises for transatlantic partnership in its historical past – and will pressure Europe to attract a line within the snow.

“The president’s ambition is on the desk,” the Danish overseas minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen instructed Fox Information after the talks. “In fact now we have our crimson strains. That is 2026, you commerce with individuals however you don’t commerce individuals.”

After an hour-long assembly with the US vice-president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Rasmussen and Greenland’s overseas minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, stood grim-faced smoking cigarettes exterior of the Eisenhower govt constructing in Washington DC.

“In relation to Greenland, the Europeans have discovered a crimson line that they actually need to stand by,” stated Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow on the German Marshall Fund for US defence and transatlantic safety.

“The whole lot else has been topic to negotiation … however the Greenland scenario is completely different as a result of it involves the query of sovereignty, and it involves the query of whether or not Europe is able to standing up for itself by way of its personal territory, its personal rights.”

Europe, nonetheless, was at a “diplomatic drawback” due to its dependency on the US for safety, stated Latvia’s former prime minister Krišjanis Kariņš.

“Europe isn’t, sadly, in a robust place to strongly object, as a result of, say, if Europe had been to open up the dispute into the commerce space, I’m sure that the US would reply in variety or greater than in variety,” he stated. “On the finish of the day, Europe nonetheless wants the US.”

The pressure on officers from Denmark and Greenland has been monumental. A day after assembly US officers, a visibly emotional Motzfeldt stated she had been overwhelmed by the previous couple of days of negotiations.

“Denmark has actually solely been a very good ally to the US,” stated Marisol Maddox, a senior fellow at Dartmouth College’s Arctic research institute. “In order that’s additionally part of what makes this so extraordinary, is that this was like going as much as your finest good friend and simply randomly slapping them within the face … There’s nothing to impress this.”

Trump’s curiosity in buying the island has solely grown since his longtime good friend Ronald Lauder, the inheritor to the Estée Lauder cosmetics firm, first urged it to him in 2019. The White Home has stated its important concern is nationwide safety, however Trump has admitted that ego performs a key function as properly. He instructed the New York Occasions final week that proudly owning Greenland was “what I really feel is psychologically wanted for fulfillment”. On Friday, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on international locations that don’t “go alongside” together with his ambition to annex Greenland.

Others in his administration – notably Vance – have seen the obsession over Greenland as a chance to select one other battle with European allies, and European diplomats noticed his determination to hitch the negotiations as a adverse signal.

Vance “is particularly having fun with this”, one stated. “It’s clear why he’s gotten concerned and it’ll make the talks extra emotional.” Politico reported that 10 ministers and officers polled on his involvement didn’t regard him as an ally on Greenland or different transatlantic issues.

Europe has responded by searching for to chop the legs out from below the Trump administration’s argument that Greenland is underprotected from a possible Russian or Chinese language assault. A small French navy contingent arrived on the island on Thursday as a part of a restricted deployment together with troops from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK.

“The defence and safety of Greenland is a standard concern for your entire Nato alliance,” stated Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. Rasmussen and Motzfeldt are scheduled to satisfy Rutte for talks on Monday.

By deploying troops and property, Kariņš stated European leaders might take away a pretext of the Trump administration for annexing the territory, referring to arguments that it was not protected against Russian and Chinese language aggression.

“President Trump has a reasonably established monitor report now of type of doing issues his personal approach,” he stated. But when Europe strengthens Greenland’s navy safety, “it takes away a public argument by the Trump administration” for annexation.

Other than navy deployments, observers have loads of concepts about how the EU can defend Danish sovereignty of Greenland and assert European curiosity. On the milder finish, ideas embody convening a world summit on Arctic safety in Nuuk, co-organised by Denmark and Greenland, along with the EU and non-EU international locations together with the UK, Canada, Norway and the US.

Extra radical concepts are additionally circulating, similar to freezing the European parliament’s vote on ratification of the EU-US commerce deal agreed with Trump at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland final yr. A bunch of socialist and inexperienced MEPs argue that voting on the deal, at present scheduled for February, can be “simply seen as rewarding … his actions”.

Such a transfer, nonetheless, is unlikely to realize majority help within the right-leaning parliament, the place many MEPs are cautious of antagonising the White Home.

The day after Rasmussen stated Trump remained intent on conquering Greenland, EU officers continued to be diplomatic. The European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, described the US on Thursday as an ally and companion whereas discussing the Greenland scenario.

She additionally set out how the EU was searching for to deepen help for the island, citing the opening of an workplace in Nuuk and a proposal to double EU monetary assist. “Greenland can rely on us, politically, economically and financially,” she instructed reporters.

Constantinos Kombos, the overseas minister of Cyprus, which at present holds the EU’s rotating presidency, stated the bloc wanted to accentuate dialogue with the US over Greenland. “Perhaps [the current administration] is completely different than what we’re used to and it’s, however that doesn’t imply now we have the posh of responding with our self-isolation,” he stated.