U.S. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos on Wednesday.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press
Leaders across Europe breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday after Donald Trump said he would drop his threat to impose new tariffs on countries that oppose his plan to acquire Greenland.
The U.S. President announced on social media that after discussions with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Davos, Switzerland, they had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland.” As a result, he said he will not go ahead with an additional 10-per-cent tariff on Feb. 1 as planned.
“I think it puts everybody in a really good position,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
Earlier in a speech to the World Economic Forum, Mr. Trump ruled out taking Greenland by force but said he wanted to immediately start negotiations to purchase the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that, okay? Now everyone’s saying ‘oh, good,’” the President said.
“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.”
He added ominously: “They have a choice. You can say ‘yes’ and we will be very appreciative, or you can say ‘no’ and we will remember.”
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There were no details about what Mr. Trump and Mr. Rutte had agreed to, or what kind of compromise had been reached over the island’s future. A NATO spokesperson said the framework focuses on Arctic security through allies and that negotiations between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland will ensure that Russia and China never gain a foothold in Greenland, economically or militarily.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said it is “positive that it is being said that military force will not be used. But it does not make this matter go away.”
Mr. Rasmussen made it clear that the Danish government was not going to negotiate the sale of Greenland, but he said it was open to discussing increased Arctic security through NATO. “We do not start any negotiations on the basis that we give up on basic principles. We will never get to that,” he told reporters.
On Wednesday the European Parliament showed its displeasure with Mr. Trump by pausing the implementation of a trade deal the European Union reached with the U.S. last summer.
The agreement cut Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on EU imports from 30 per cent to 15 per cent. However, last weekend, Mr. Trump said he would increase the tariff to 25 per cent unless EU countries agreed to support his quest to acquire Greenland.
“Given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have been left with no alternative but to suspend work,” said Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament’s international trade committee.
EU leaders plan to still go ahead with an emergency summit on Thursday to discuss Greenland.
In comments earlier on Wednesday, António Costa, who heads the European Council, which represents leaders from the 27 member states, said the EU stood ready “to defend ourselves, our member states, our citizens, our companies, against any form of coercion.”
“And the European Union has the power and the tools to do so,” he added.
In Nuuk, Greenland, opposition MP Juno Berthelsen, whose party supports independence for the island, said all legislators had been “adamant in pursuing a peaceful outcome through diplomacy and we are relieved.”
“Now we, the Greenlandic people, can continue our ongoing process, exercising as a sovereign people our right to self-determination toward independence,” he said in an e-mail.
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Greenland’s government took steps on Wednesday to prepare the island’s 57,000 residents for a possible emergency, which included “international conflict.”
Officials released an 11-page document that recommended residents keep five-days’ worth of food and water on hand. It also suggested having an alternative heat source for cooking without electricity, such as a portable stove, and it urged people to stock up on candles, batteries, blankets and toilet paper.
“The more people who can fend for themselves and help others, the stronger we are as a society” said Peter Borg, Greenland’s Minister of Fisheries, Hunting, Agriculture and Self-Sufficiency.
Earlier in the day, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told MPs in the House of Commons that Mr. Trump was wrong to threaten to double the tariff on U.K. imports to 20 per cent unless Britain supported his plan to take over Greenland.
“I have made my position clear on our principles and values. The first of those is that the future of Greenland is for the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone. The second is that threats of tariffs to pressure allies are completely wrong,” he said.
During his speech at Davos, Mr. Trump referred to Greenland as a largely uninhabited piece of ice, and he reached through history to make his case.
He insisted that the U.S. had given Greenland back to Denmark after the Second World War, suggesting that sovereignty had been transferred.
“After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that, but we did it, but we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now,” he said.
Denmark was occupied by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945. In 1941, the Danish ambassador to Washington, Henrik Kauffmann, refused to take orders from the Berlin-controlled government in Copenhagen and signed an agreement with the U.S. to defend Greenland, which has been part of the Danish kingdom for centuries.
The deal allowed the U.S. to station troops and to open bases on the island for the duration of the occupation. However, there was no suggestion that Denmark had given up sovereignty or that Greenland became U.S. territory.
After the war, U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes offered to buy Greenland for US$100-million in gold bullion. The offer was rejected.
Mr. Trump said he wanted to start negotiations “to once again” discuss the acquisition of Greenland. “Just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history, as many of the European nations have, they’ve acquired, there’s nothing wrong with it.”