Greenland crisis: Europe needs the US, but it also needs to stand up to Trump | Greenland

The Greenland crisis could bring the moment when Europe must stand up to Donald Trump, as officials say a US attempt to annex the region could tear apart the NATO transatlantic alliance.

For nearly a year, European leaders have heeded demands from Trump, who has pushed NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP and threatened to withdraw U.S. support in Ukraine as part of a peace process that appears to favor Russia. They also provided a muted response to U.S. adventurism abroad, including the capture and extradition of Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro.

Flattery often occurred in public as well. Various European leaders have vied for the role of “Trump whisperer,” and NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte infamously referred to Trump as “dad” at a summit last June.

But Trump’s repeated and increasingly combative demands that Denmark hand over or sell semi-autonomous Greenland to him have sparked one of the biggest transatlantic partnership crises in its history and could force Europe to draw a line in the snow.

“The president’s ambition is on the table,” Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told Fox News after the talks. “Of course we have red lines. The year is 2026, you trade with people, but you don’t trade with people.”

US vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio smoked sullenly outside the Eisenhower administration building in Washington DC after an hour-long meeting with Rasmussen and Greenlandic foreign minister Vivian Motzfeldt.

“When it comes to Greenland, the Europeans have found a red line that they really want to stand behind,” said Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow for U.S. defense and transatlantic security at the German Marshall Fund.

“Everything else was subject to negotiation… but Greenland’s situation is different because it comes down to the question of sovereignty and whether Europe has the capacity to sustain itself in terms of its own territory and its own rights.”

But Latvia’s former prime minister, Krišjanis Kariņš, said Europe was at a “diplomatic disadvantage” due to its dependence on the United States for security.

“Europe is unfortunately not in a strong position to object strongly, because if Europe opens the dispute up to trade, I’m sure the United States will respond in kind or more in kind,” he said. “At the end of the day, Europe still needs the United States.”

The pressure on the Danish and Greenlandic authorities is enormous. A day after meeting with U.S. officials, a visibly emotional Motzfeldt said he was overwhelmed by the past few days of negotiations.

“Denmark was actually a good ally of the United States,” said Marisol Maddox, a senior researcher at Dartmouth University’s Arctic Research Institute. “So that’s one of the things that makes this so extraordinary; it was like walking up to your best friend and randomly slapping her in the face… There’s nothing to provoke it.”

Trump’s interest in buying the island has grown since his longtime friend Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics company, first suggested it to him in 2019. The White House has said the candidate’s main concern is national security, but Trump acknowledged that ego also plays a major role. He told the New York Times last week that owning Greenland was “what I think is psychologically necessary for success.” On Friday, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not comply with his ambition to annex Greenland.

Others in his administration, especially Vance, saw the obsession with Greenland as an opportunity to start a new fight with European allies, and European diplomats also viewed his decision to join the negotiations as a negative sign.

One said Vance “particularly enjoyed it.” “It’s clear why he’s involved and it will make the talks more emotional.” Politico reported that 10 ministers and officials surveyed about his involvement did not see him as an ally on Greenland or other transatlantic issues.

Europe has responded by trying to debunk the Trump administration’s claim that Greenland was not adequately protected against a possible Russian or Chinese attack. A small French military contingent arrived on the island on Thursday as part of a limited deployment that also included troops from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and Britain.

“The defense and protection of Greenland is a common concern of the entire NATO alliance,” said Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen. Rasmussen and Motzfeldt are scheduled to meet with Rutte on Monday.

Kariņš said European leaders could eliminate the Trump administration’s pretext for annexing the region by deploying troops and assets, citing arguments that the region is not protected from Russian and Chinese aggression.

“President Trump now has a pretty established track record of doing things his way,” he said. But if Europe strengthens Greenland’s military security, that would undermine the Trump administration’s public assertion of annexation.

Besides military deployments, observers also have many ideas about how the EU could protect Denmark’s sovereignty in Greenland and promote European interests. At the more moderate end, suggestions include holding a meeting. International summit on Arctic security in NuukIt is organized jointly with Denmark and Greenland, as well as the EU and non-EU countries such as the UK, Canada, Norway and the USA.

More radical ideas are also floating around, such as freezing the European Parliament’s vote on ratifying the EU-US trade deal reached with Trump at the Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year. A group of socialist and green MPs argue that a vote on the deal, currently planned for February, “will easily be seen as rewarding his actions”.

But such a move is unlikely to win majority support in the right-leaning parliament, where many lawmakers are wary of angering the White House.

EU officials remained diplomatic the day after Rasmussen said Trump intended to conquer Greenland. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called the United States an ally and partner when discussing the situation in Greenland on Thursday.

He also described how the EU is trying to deepen its support for the island, touting the opening of an office in Nuuk and a proposal to double EU financial aid. “Greenland can rely on us politically, economically and financially,” he told reporters.

Constantinos Kombos, the foreign minister of Cyprus, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the bloc should intensify dialogue with the United States on Greenland. “Maybe [the current administration] “It’s different from what we’re used to, and it is, but that doesn’t mean we have the luxury of responding in our own isolation,” he said.