- EU leaders stand united against Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.
- Europe weighs countermeasures after Trump threatened tariffs.
- Macron bids to tame Europe, calling tariffs ‘unacceptable’.
DAVOS: European leaders drew a clear line on Greenland on Tuesday, pledging an “unwavering” response to Washington’s threats, even as US President Donald Trump said he was ready to hold a meeting in Davos on his plans to seize the autonomous Danish territory.
Asked just hours before he was due to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, how far he would go, Trump replied only: “You’ll find out.”
“We have a lot of meetings planned in Greenland, and I think things are going to work out pretty well,” Trump told reporters of his Davos meetings.
Leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort closed ranks against Trump’s increasingly aggressive America First agenda, while Greenland’s prime minister said his tiny population of 57,000 must be prepared for military force.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led the European rejoinder, warning that Trump risked throwing US relations with the EU into a “downward spiral”.
France’s Emmanuel Macron warned against US attempts to “subjugate Europe” and blasted as “unacceptable” Trump’s threats to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on countries opposed to his Greenland plans.
Trump had previously insisted that Greenland was “imperative” for security. “There can be no turning back – everyone agrees!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The American president, who will address the annual gathering of global elites on Wednesday, has put the transatlantic alliance to the test with his demand to take over Greenland.
Europe is considering countermeasures after he threatened tariffs on eight European countries, although Washington has said any retaliatory tariffs would be “unwise”.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told European countries to “keep the pressure and the temperature down” on threats of retaliatory tariffs, while US trade envoy Jamieson Greer told reporters in Davos that it “would not be wise” for European nations to use their “bazooka” trade measures.
Von der Leyen labeled the US tariffs a “mistake” and told the meeting of world business and political leaders they could start a spiral that would only help Europe’s adversaries.
“So our response will be unwavering, united and proportionate,” she said.
NATO at stake
Trump has pressed on with his Greenland campaign The truth Socialand wrote that he had a “very good” call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in which he agreed to meet with “different parties” in Davos.
Rutte’s predecessor Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that the Republicans’ Greenland gambit had ignited the biggest crisis in Nato’s history and said the time for “flattering” the US leader was over.
“It is the future of NATO and the future of the world order that is at stake,” he told AFP in an interview in Davos.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen agreed, and told a press conference in Nuuk that although military force was “unlikely”, it could not be ruled out.
“That’s why we must be ready for all possibilities, but let’s emphasize it: Greenland is part of Nato, and if there were to be an escalation, it would also have consequences for the rest of the world.”
Trump claims he wants to protect mineral-rich Greenland from perceived Russian and Chinese threats – even though Washington already has a base there and security deals through Nato, while analysts suggest Beijing is a minor player in the region.
EU leaders are holding an emergency summit on Greenland in Brussels on Thursday.
‘Law of the Jungle’
Other prominent foreign leaders who addressed the WEF on Tuesday include Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, whose country has been locked in a trade war with Trump.
“A select few countries should not have privileges based on self-interest, and the world cannot return to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak,” he said without naming names.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has sought to reduce his country’s reliance on the United States in its own tariff feud with Trump, also voiced his support for Greenland in Davos.
Canada had benefited from an era of “American hegemony,” he said, but now had to pivot to defend the existing international order.
Other flashpoints on the WEF agenda include the crises in Venezuela, Gaza, Iran – and Ukraine.
Europe, which is increasing defense spending to break its security dependence on the United States, still needs Washington’s help to end the Ukraine war and deter the looming Russian threat to the east.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Tuesday that he was concerned furore over Greenland could divert attention, warning of a “loss of focus during a full-scale war”.
Macron, wearing sunglasses because of a broken vein, sent a message to Trump to propose a G7 summit in Paris on Thursday on Greenland as well as Ukraine, with Copenhagen, Moscow and Kyiv on the sidelines.
But he later clarified to AFP that no such meeting had yet been planned, and Trump said he would not attend the meeting.
The Kremlin said Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev plans to meet members of the US delegation at Davos – the first to attend since Russians were barred from the gathering following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
