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Allies, including France and Germany, are working closely on a plan for how to respond if the United States follows through on its threatens to take over Greenlandas Europe seeks to address US president that of Donald Trump ambitions in the region.
A U.S. military capture of Greenland from longtime ally Denmark would send shockwaves through the NATO alliance and widen the divide between Trump and European leaders.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that the subject would be raised during a meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland later today.
“We want to act, but we want to do it together with our European partners,” he declared on France Inter.
A German government source said separately that Germany was “working closely with other European countries and Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland.”
A senior EU official said Denmark should lead efforts to coordinate a response, but “the Danes have not yet communicated to their European allies what kind of concrete support they want to receive,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Leaders of the great European powers and Canada rallied behind Greenland this week, saying the Arctic island belongs to its people, following a new threat from Trump to seize the territory.
Johannes Koskinen, chairman of the Finnish parliament’s foreign affairs committee, called for this issue to be raised within NATO.
NATO allies should “consider whether something needs to be done and whether the United States should fall in line in the sense that it cannot ignore mutually agreed plans to pursue its own power ambitions,” he said.
The next meeting of the North Atlantic Council is scheduled for Thursday.
Trump restarts takeover discussions
Trump has in recent days repeated that he wants to take control of Greenland, an idea first expressed in 2019 during his first presidency. He says the island is critical to U.S. military strategy and that Denmark has not done enough to protect it.
The White House said Tuesday that Trump was discussing options for acquiring Greenland, including the potential use of the U.S. military, as part of a revival of his ambition to control the strategic island, despite European objections.
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Barrot suggested that a US military operation had been ruled out by Washington’s top diplomat.
“I myself was on the phone yesterday with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (…) who confirmed that this was not the approach taken (…) he ruled out the possibility of an invasion (of Greenland),” he said.
An American military operation this weekend which seized the leader of Venezuela had already reignited fears that Greenland could face a similar scenario.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this week that Trump and his advisers were discussing various ways to acquire Greenland, including a purchase. Greenland and Denmark have said the island is not for sale.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt requested an urgent meeting with Rubio to discuss the situation.
“We would like to add some nuance to the conversation,” Rasmussen wrote in a social media post. “Screaming needs to be replaced with more sensible dialogue. Now.”
Denmark contests Russian and Chinese presence
The largest island in the world but with a population of only 57,000, Greenland is not an independent member of NATO but is covered by Denmark’s membership of the Western alliance.
The island is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defense system for decades. Its mineral wealth also aligns with Washington’s ambition to reduce its dependence on China.
Trump has repeatedly said Russian and Chinese ships are plying the waters around Greenland, which Denmark disputes.
“The image of Russian and Chinese ships inside the Nuuk Fjord and massive Chinese investments is not correct,” Rasmussen told reporters Tuesday evening.
Ship tracking data from MarineTraffic and LSEG shows no presence of Chinese or Russian vessels near Greenland.
The Danish and Greenlandic governments did not immediately respond to an email and telephone request for comment Wednesday.
