Key Highlights
- Trump’s determination to “acquire” the mineral-rich island in the Arctic region, for what he claims are security reasons, has undermined trust in the United States among allies in Europe and Canada.
- Denmark angered Trump after sending a military “reconnaissance” force to Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory.
- A small number of troops from several European nations joined, and Denmark is weighing a longer-term military presence there.
- Costa said EU leaders are united on “the principles of international law, territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” something the bloc has underlined in defending Ukraine against invasion by Russia, and which is now threatened in Greenland.
- In a speech to EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, he also stressed that only “Denmark and Greenland can decide their future.” He insisted that “further tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-US trade agreement.” The lawmakers must endorse the deal made last July, but have threatened not to do so over Trump’s tariff threats.
