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Donald Trump suggested on Friday that he may punish countries that do not back the US controlling of Greenland with tariffs as a bipartisan Congressional delegation visited the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to display unity and ease tensions.
The US president has for months insisted that Washington should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, citing national security reasons. Earlier this week, Trump said that anything other than Arctic island being in US hands is “unacceptable”.
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, Trump recounted how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals, noting that he may once more deploy the strategy to achieve this objective.
“I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” said Trump.
The comments after failed talks between Danish, Greenlandic and US officials earlier in the week in Washington, which aimed to find ways to satisfy US concerns, without resorting to threats or annexation.
The talks were attended by the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, who met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.
European leaders have insisted that is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
‘A relationship we need to nurture’
A group of US senators and members of the House of Representatives met with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders, including Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Democrat Senator Chris Coons, the delegation leader, thanked the group’s hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialogue about how we extend that into the future.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.”
She told reporters that “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”
The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a US takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.
The White House says all options are on the table, including seizing the island by military force.
The issue sounded alarms throughout Europe, both on legality and the dangerous precedent it sets. Asked about the implications of taking over the Danish territory, Trump said he intends to take it one way or another “whether they (European lawmakers) like it or not”.
The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders, who refute Trump’s narrative of an imminent Chinese and Russian threat, saying the biggest threat on their country comes from none other than Washington.
Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”
Additional sources • AP