United States President, Donald Trump, has said he will no longer impose tariffs on European countries that opposed his push for the United States to acquire Greenland, citing progress made after discussions with NATO leaders.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said the decision followed a “very productive meeting” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, adding that the emerging agreement would benefit both the US and its allies. “This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” he wrote. Rutte has yet to publicly confirm the outcome of the talks.
Earlier the same day, Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that while he would not use military force, he wanted immediate negotiations to secure ownership of Greenland, which he has repeatedly described as critical to US national security.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, welcomed the apparent easing of tensions, saying: “The day is ending on a better note than it began.” He added: “Now, let’s sit down and find out how we can address the American security concerns in the Arctic while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Announcing the shift in position on his Truth Social platform, Trump said further details would be released “as discussions progress”. He also said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would “report directly” to him as negotiations continue.
Despite the announcement, Trump did not clarify whether the discussions centred on a sale, lease or another form of arrangement, nor did he specify how Denmark, which controls the territory, viewed the proposed framework. He also offered no detail on how the deal would address the security concerns he has consistently raised.
Some information, however, began to emerge later in the day. Speaking to CNBC, Trump said the deal would last “forever” and could involve mineral rights as well as the planned Golden Dome missile defence system, envisioned as a network of interceptors and detectors across land, sea and space to protect the US from long-range missile attacks. The Trump administration has repeatedly highlighted Greenland’s strategic location and its vast, largely untapped reserves of rare earth minerals used in technologies such as mobile phones and electric vehicles.
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Trump later told CNN in Davos that the Greenland framework was “pretty far along” and “gets us everything we needed to get”, particularly in terms of “real national security and international security”. He did not, however, confirm whether the framework involved American ownership of the territory.
The president has previously rejected the idea of leasing Greenland, arguing that “you defend ownership. You don’t defend leases.” According to the New York Times, one option under consideration would give the US ownership of small areas of land where it could build military bases, in an arrangement similar to British bases in Cyprus.
Under existing agreements with Denmark, the US is already permitted to deploy troops to Greenland and currently has more than 100 military personnel stationed at its Pituffik base in the territory’s north-west.
NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said Trump and Rutte had discussed “the critical significance of security in the Arctic region to all Allies, including the United States”. She added that negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the US would move forward to ensure “that Russia and China never gain a foothold – economically or militarily – in Greenland”.
Before reversing course, Trump had threatened to impose a 10 per cent tariff on goods from the UK entering the US from 1 February, rising to 25 per cent from 1 June, until a deal was reached to acquire Greenland. Similar measures were proposed against Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.
At the World Economic Forum, Trump reiterated his desire for immediate negotiations while insisting the US would not seize Greenland by force. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive force. We’d be unstoppable, but we won’t do that,” he said. “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
He also warned that Washington would remember countries that resisted the proposal, suggesting he would not support any arrangement that stopped short of full ownership of the territory.
(BBC News)