Alarm over Trump’s Greenland threat gives way to uncertainty around ‘future deal’
There was little clarity about what would happen next after the president made an abrupt U-turn in his push to take control of the island.
President Trump has stepped back from the brink on Greenland. Now the question is what happens next.
After days of frenzied diplomacy, the U.S. president said on Wednesday that he had “formed a framework for a future deal" on Greenland and said he didn’t intend to use force to take control of the icebound island. But details were hazy, and European officials on Thursday seemed to be willing to talk about it only in vague terms.
The lack of clarity raises the prospect that the chaos of the past few days, which jarred markets and stress tested trans-Atlantic diplomacy, could return in the near future.
Trump arrived in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday saying he wanted ownership of Greenland for national-security reasons, arguing that Denmark, which owns Greenland, wasn’t up to the job of defending the Arctic from Russian or Chinese aggression. He threatened 10% tariffs on European nations that stood in his way and, shortly after arriving at the World Economic Forum, made a speech demanding “immediate negotiations" to take control of the island.
Hours later, there was an abrupt reversal following what Trump said was a “very productive meeting" with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, after which the president dropped the threat of tariffs and sounded a more conciliatory note.
Trump called the framework “really fantastic" but offered few details. Negotiations that will follow are expected to include a potential U.S. agreement with Denmark about stationing forces at bases in Greenland and giving America right of first refusal over investments in the island’s mineral resources, according to European officials.
Rutte said on Thursday that the issue of the sovereignty of Greenland, whose autonomous government alongside Denmark has repeatedly rejected an American takeover, didn’t come up at all in Wednesday’s talks with Trump. “We didn’t discuss at all about that issue," said Rutte, during an interview with Bloomberg. “We discussed how can we protect Greenland, how can we protect the wider Arctic region."
Denmark, meanwhile, held firm that it wouldn’t be strong-armed into ceding sovereignty over any part of Greenland. “We can negotiate on everything political; security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty. I have been informed that this has not been the case,“ Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday.
A European official said there was no written document and that no real details on Greenland’s future had been negotiated between Rutte and Trump. Another European official briefed on the talks said the meeting with Rutte provided Trump with a face-saving opportunity for a de-escalation that had become necessary given the global backlash and the reaction of financial markets.
“I don’t think there’s a deal at all at the moment. I mean, it’s a sort of a fake deal so far," Ben Wallace, a former U.K. defense secretary, said on Thursday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking in Davos, applauded Trump’s U-turn. Under the informal understanding reached between Trump and Rutte, European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would step up policing of the Arctic to counter Russian influence in the region, Merz said.
“We welcome that the United States is taking the threat posed by Russia in the Arctic seriously," he said. “This threat is itself an expression of great power rivalry. It is aimed both at Europe and the United States."
Yvette Cooper, the British foreign secretary, said Thursday that as far as she was aware there was no discussion on the issue of access to minerals in Greenland as part of the talks. Trump has long talked up the prospect of America gaining access to riches buried deep beneath the Greenlandic ice, though in his Wednesday speech in Davos he insisted he wanted the island for its military value and not its mineral wealth. Instead, she said that the entente was built around launching a NATO mission, known as Arctic Sentry, to bolster defense of the High North.
In a veiled jab at Trump, Merz warned the U.S. against succumbing to power politics, saying, “Germany went down this road to its bitter end. It pulled the world into a black abyss."
Despite Trump dropping his threat on the continent, Merz warned that any new tariffs levied at European Union countries would be met by a measured but firm answer. “Now we must repair the trust on which the alliance is built," he added.
Write to Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com, Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com and Bertrand Benoit at bertrand.benoit@wsj.com
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