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People attend a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that the Arctic island be ceded to the U.S., in front of the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday.Marko Djurica/Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought “purely of Peace” as the row over the island on Monday threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe.
Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, threatening punitive tariffs on countries which stand in his way and prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.
The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump’s refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence.
Canada plans to send soldiers to Greenland as show of NATO solidarity with Denmark, officials say
It has also plunged trade relations between the EU and the U.S., the bloc’s biggest export market, into renewed uncertainty after the two sides painstakingly reached a trade deal last year in response to Trump’s swingeing tariffs.
In a written message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that was seen by Reuters, Trump said: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee annoyed Trump by awarding the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. She gave her medal last week to Trump during a White House meeting, though the Nobel Committee said the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.
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Danish soldiers disembark at the port in Nuuk, Greenland on Sunday.Mads Claus Rasmussen/The Associated Press
In his message, Trump also repeated his accusation that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia or China.
“… and why do they have a ’right of ownership’ anyway?” he wrote, adding: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs from February 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
EU leader say they will not be blackmailed
EU leaders will discuss options at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday. One option is a package of tariffs on €93-billion of U.S. imports that could automatically kick in on February 6 after a six-month suspension.
Another option is the “Anti-Coercion Instrument” (ACI), which has never yet been used and which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the U.S. has a surplus with the bloc, including in digital services.
Greenland has become the epicentre of the growing rift between Europe and the U.S.
The EU said it was continuing to engage “at all levels” with the U.S. but said the use of its ACI was not off the table.
The EU’s efforts at dialogue are likely to be a key theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Trump is set to deliver a keynote address on Wednesday in his first appearance at the event in six years.
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and French Finance Minister Roland Lescure, meeting in Berlin, pledged a united, clear, European response to any additional U.S. tariffs.
“Germany and France agree: we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” Klingbeil said at the German finance ministry, where he was hosting his French counterpart.
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A woman waves a Greenlandic flag as people attend a protest in Nuuk on Saturday.Marko Djurica/Reuters
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for calm discussion between the allies, adding that he did not believe Trump was considering military action to seize Greenland.
“A tariff war is in nobody’s interests,” he said, suggesting that Britain would not retaliate against any new U.S. tariffs.
Russia declined to comment on whether the U.S. designs on Greenland were good or bad but said it was hard to disagree with experts that Trump would “go down in … world history” if he did take control of the island.
Economic shock waves
Trump’s threat has rattled European industry and sent shock waves through financial markets amid fears of a return to the volatility of last year’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year.
“This latest flashpoint has heightened concerns over a potential unravelling of NATO alliances and the disruption of last year’s trade agreements with several European nations,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst with IG based in Sydney.
Opinion: Mad King Trump would break the world to gain Greenland
European shares were down on Monday, while the dollar fell as investors piled into safe-haven currencies.
Oliver Burkhard, the CEO of TKMS, the world’s top non-nuclear submarine maker, said shifting transatlantic ties should encourage Europe to focus on its own strengths and find ways to become more independent.
“I believe that there are, of course, nicer ways than nudges like that, but it is probably necessary, to put it in my own words, to get a kick in the shin to realize that we may have to suit up differently in the future,” he told Reuters.
