US President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (not pictured) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
Credit: Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump abruptly stepped back on Wednesday from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, ruled out the use of force and suggested a deal was in sight to end a dispute over the Danish territory that risked the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades.
Traveling in Davos, Switzerland, Trump backed down, for now, from weeks of rhetoric that shook the NATO alliance and risked a new global trade war. Trump had threatened at the weekend to impose rising tariffs on eight European countries' US-bound exports.
But after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Swiss Alpine resort, Trump said Western Arctic allies could forge a new deal over the strategic island territory of 57,000 people that satisfies his desire for a "Golden Dome" missile-defense system and access to critical minerals while blocking Russia and China's ambitions in the Arctic.
“It’s a deal that everybody’s very happy with," Trump told reporters. “It’s a long-term deal. It’s the ultimate long-term deal. It puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
"It’s a deal that’s forever," he added.
Rutte later said the issue of whether Greenland will remain with Denmark did not come up in his talks with Trump.
"That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations tonight with the president," Rutte said in an interview on Fox News, news agency Reuters reported.
"He (Trump) is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region - where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active - how we can protect it."
Trump earlier in the day had delivered more than an hour of scolding and dismissive threats aimed at countries already unnerved by his push to seize territory from a longtime US NATO ally.
European diplomats said the President’s sudden shift in tone does not resolve the dispute but helps defuse an open rift between allies as they work to sort out their differences in private.
"Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold — economically or militarily - in Greenland," a NATO spokesperson said.
No date or venue was provided for such negotiations. Trump said he had tasked Vice President J D Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff to take part in further discussions.
It's of no consequence to us: Putin
"What happens in Greenland is of absolutely no consequence to us," said Russian President Vladimir Putin, quoted by Russian news agencies speaking to the country's National Security Council.