Starmer and Macron in extraordinary face-off with Trump over Greenland: Euro leaders issue statement saying they will ‘not stop defending’ Nato borders as President threatens to seize mineral-rich island by FORCE
European leaders boldly stood up to Donald Trump on Tuesday night after his administration threatened to use the US military to seize Greenland.
Leaders including Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Meloni vowed to protect Greenland’s ‘territorial integrity’ following rising tensions between the US and NATO ally Denmark.
This comes as Trump and his top advisers are exploring plans including buying Danish territory or assuming defense responsibility, According to a senior administration official.
The White House said ‘using the US military is always an option’ and warned that the problem ‘will not go away’ despite objections from NATO leaders.
The statement horrified America’s NATO allies, who have rallied around Denmark in recent days as Trump reiterated his threat to invade Greenland following the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
Seven leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark announced in their press statement that they “will not stop defending” Greenland despite the threats.
They called America an ‘important partner’ and reiterated that the US and Denmark signed a defense agreement in 1951.
‘Greenland belongs to its people. “The authority to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland belongs to Denmark and Greenland, and to them alone,” they said.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of House Republican Party (GOP) members at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 6.
Leaders’ joint statement pledged to defend Greenland’s ‘territorial integrity’
The joint statement came from leaders including Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured January 6)
In the statement, it was stated that the allies will continue to defend Greenland’s ‘territorial integrity’ and ‘inviolability of borders’.
Trump has argued that the United States must control the island, which is more than three times the size of Texas, to ensure NATO’s security against growing threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.
He hinted on Sunday that a decision on Greenland could come ‘in about two months’ once the situation in Venezuela stabilizes.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday: ‘President Trump has made clear that acquiring Greenland is a US national security priority and that deterring our adversaries in the Arctic is vital.
‘The President and his team are discussing a number of options to achieve this important ‘foreign policy objective’, and of course ‘using the US military’ is always an option available to the commander in chief.’
This comes as Trump claimed on Tuesday night that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela would transfer between 30 and 50 million barrels of ‘high-quality, sanctioned oil’ to the US.
He added: ‘This Oil will be sold at Market Price and this money will be controlled by me as President of the United States to ensure that it is used for the benefit of Venezuela and the people of the United States! ‘I have asked Energy Minister Chris Wright to implement this plan immediately.’
Trump’s renewed claims about Greenlandic self-governance have raised concerns in Europe that the NATO alliance may be about to fall apart.
Snow-covered buildings in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 7, 2025
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the Coalition of Volunteers Elysee Summit in Paris on Tuesday
Europe’s support comes after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller cast doubt on the legitimacy of Denmark’s territorial claim on Greenland in an interview with CNN on Monday night.
He also said there was ‘no need’ to consider whether the US would launch a military operation to take over because ‘no one is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland’.
Miller’s wife further ratcheted up tensions after Maduro’s capture by tweeting a map of Greenland covered in an American flag and captioning the post on X, “Soon.”
On Saturday, Trump touted the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, his own version of the Monroe Doctrine, an 1800s-era policy spelled out by President James Monroe that warned against European colonialism in the Americas, following Maduro’s capture.
Greenland’s location above the Arctic Circle makes it a prime piece of real estate on the world’s geopolitical map.
Katie Miller, wife of President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Steven Miller, sent X a map of Greenland covered in an American flag, just hours after the United States struck Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro.
Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland last January
Rising international tensions, global warming and a changing world economy have placed Greenland at the center of debates about global trade and security.
The island, 80 percent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 people, mostly Inuit, who have so far been largely ignored by the rest of the world.
Canada’s location on the northeastern coast was vital to the defense of North America during World War II, when the United States occupied Greenland.
Following the Cold War, the Arctic was largely the site of international cooperation.
But Arctic ice caps are thinning, promising to create a northwest gateway for international trade and reigniting competition with Russia, China and other countries for access to the region’s mineral resources.
In 2018, China declared itself a ‘near-Arctic state’ in order to gain more influence in the region.
China has also announced plans to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ as part of the global Belt and Road Initiative, which creates economic links with countries around the world.
U.S. Army Green Berets are seen during Arctic Edge 24 in Greenland. The region is known for its undiscovered mineral wealth and the NATO alliance
US Vice President JD Vance visited Greenland, specifically the US military’s Pituffik Cosmodrome, last March
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move with the following words: ‘Do we want the Arctic Ocean to turn into a new South China Sea full of militarization and competing territorial claims?’
Russia, meanwhile, sought to assert its influence in large areas of the Arctic in competition with the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway.
Moscow is also trying to increase its military presence in the polar region, which hosts the Northern Fleet and where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons. Russian military officials said the facility was ready to continue testing if necessary.
The Russian military has been restoring former Soviet infrastructure and building new facilities in the Arctic in recent years. Since 2014, the Russian army has opened several military bases in the Arctic and worked on the reconstruction of airspace.
European leaders’ concerns have increased following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia was concerned about NATO’s activities in the Arctic and would respond by strengthening the capacity of its armed forces there.
Speaking at a policy forum in the Arctic port of Murmansk in March, Putin said: “Russia has not threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will follow developments closely and give an appropriate response by increasing our military capacity and modernizing military infrastructure.”
But he added that Moscow kept the door open to broader international cooperation in the region.
The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Cosmodrome in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the United States and Denmark signed the Greenland Defense Treaty in 1951.
It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the United States and NATO.
Greenland also protects part of the area known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, through which NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.
Denmark is strengthening its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic.
The government last year announced a deal worth around $2.3 billion with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing Danish territory, to ‘improve surveillance and sovereignty-maintaining capabilities’.
The plan includes three new Arctic naval ships, two additional long-range surveillance aircraft and satellite capacity.
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and is tasked with ‘surveillance, sovereignty assertion and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands’, according to its website. There are smaller satellite stations throughout the island.
The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is also deployed in Greenland.
Greenland is also a rich source of rare earth minerals, a key component of mobile phones, computers, batteries and other high-tech devices that are expected to power the world economy in the coming years.
This has attracted the attention of the United States and other Western powers, which are trying to ease China’s dominance in this critical minerals market.
Developing Greenland’s mineral resources is challenging due to the island’s harsh climate; Strict environmental controls pose an additional obstacle for potential investors.
