BEIJING, China, Jan 12 — United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Washington must “own” Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, triggering concern and criticism among its European allies.
Experts said the remarks highlighted a strategic dilemma facing the European Union in managing its relations with the US and risk weakening the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Trump has made several statements recently about his intention to acquire Greenland. He said on Friday that he is going to do “something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”. If it is not done “the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way”, he said, without elaborating on what that could entail.
The White House said it is considering a range of options, including using military force, to acquire the island.
Greenland’s leaders have rejected Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement on Friday.
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends.”
German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil said on Sunday that international law applies to all, including the US.
“It is solely up to Denmark and Greenland to decide about Greenland’s future. Territorial sovereignty and integrity must be respected,” Klingbeil said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
According to a report by The Telegraph on Saturday, several European countries are considering deploying troops to the Arctic, hoping that a significantly enhanced presence in the region would dissuade Trump from pursuing ambitions to annex the strategically important island.
The report also said the EU is drawing up contingency plans to impose sanctions on US companies should Trump reject a proposed NATO deployment. Under the plans, US technology giants such as Meta, Google, Microsoft and X could face restrictions on operating in Europe, along with US banks and financial institutions.
Strategic turn
Zhao Yongsheng, a researcher at the Research Institute for Global Value Chains at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said Trump’s Greenland remarks reflect a strategic turn toward “America first”, a shift that is likely to strain US-EU relations and erode mutual trust within NATO.
Trump, invoking geopolitics as a pretext, attempted to “own” Greenland, driven in reality by the island’s abundant mineral resources and the increasingly favorable navigational conditions of the Arctic shipping route, Zhao said.
Europe’s overall influence is waning across economic, political, military and technological dimensions, he said. Therefore, facing pressure from the US, the EU finds it difficult to take a firm retaliatory stance.
“The US-EU alliance will endure, but the basis of trust has shifted. It now relies less on shared values, ideologies or institutional frameworks, but more on pragmatic interests,” he said.
The Greenland dispute may not be the final blow to NATO or trans-Atlantic relations, but the US is likely to further expand its military, security and geoeconomic presence on the island, while European distrust of Washington deepens, he said.
He Yun, a researcher at the Belt and Road Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University, said the move by the US has exposed the fragility of the NATO alliance and poses a challenge to global multilateral mechanisms and security frameworks.
“Trump’s remarks have underscored for Europe that the US is no longer just a security provider, but could also emerge as its greatest security threat. This shift delivers a severe blow to strategic trust between the two sides,” she said.
The political premise of NATO’s collective security has long been that the US serves as the core guarantor of European security. Should Washington retreat into a focus on domestic priorities at the expense of its NATO commitments, the alliance’s collective defense mechanism would be rendered hollow, undermining both the trust and the strength that it relies on, He said.
Despite clear divisions within Europe, the US’ assertive actions on Greenland are likely to prompt more European countries to reassess the risks of reliance on Washington, further accelerating efforts toward strategic autonomy, she said.
Agencies contributed to this story.
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