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Denmark’s prime minister insisted on Thursday that her country can’t negotiate on its sovereignty, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he agreed to a “framework of a future deal” on Greenland and Arctic security with the head of NATO.
On Wednesday, Trump abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
It was a dramatic reversal hours after he insisted he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership” — though he also said he would not use force.
Trump said “additional discussions” on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defence program, a multilayered, $175-billion US system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space. Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out.
NATO said its secretary general, Mark Rutte, hadn’t proposed any compromise to Danish sovereignty.
Denmark insists on territorial integrity
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said security in the Arctic is a matter for all of NATO, and it is “good and natural” that it be discussed between the U.S. president and Rutte. She said in a statement that she had spoken with Rutte “on an ongoing basis,” including before and after he met Trump in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
She wrote that NATO is fully aware of Denmark’s position that anything political can be negotiated on, including security, investment and economic issues — “but we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”
“I have been informed that this has not been the case,” she said, adding that only Denmark and Greenland can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.
Frederiksen said that Denmark wants to continue engaging in constructive dialogue with allies on how to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the U.S. Golden Dome program, “provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity.”
WATCH | Greenlanders won’t trust U.S. again, says former Greenland MP:
‘We can never really trust America again’: former Greenland MP
Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Parliament of Greenland, says people in Nuuk haven’t heard any details about the deal U.S. President Donald Trump teased on Wednesday. But she said Greenlanders won’t trust him again, likening him to a sled dog who turns and bites you.
Asked in an interview with Fox News whether Greenland would remain part of the kingdom of Denmark under the framework deal Trump announced, Rutte replied, “that issue did not come up anymore in my conversations tonight with the president.”
“He’s very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect it,” he said. “That was really the focus of our discussions.”
NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Thursday that Rutte “did not propose any compromise to sovereignty during his meeting with President Trump.” She said that negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. “will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold — economically or militarily — in Greenland.”
Christan Friis Bach, the chair of the Danish parliament’s foreign policy committee, told The Associated Press that Denmark wants to see a “consolidated and permanent” NATO surveillance and security mission in the Arctic, along the lines of the Baltic Sentry mission the alliance launched in the Baltic Sea last year.
Skepticism over Trump’s switch
On the streets of Copenhagen, some were skeptical about Trump’s new stance.
“I think the man has said many things and done a lot of different things to what he says,” said Louise Pedersen, 22, who works with a startup company. “I have a hard time believing it. I think it’s terrifying that we stand here in 2026.”
She said it’s for Greenlanders to decide what happens with their land — “not Donald Trump.”
“I don’t really trust anything Mr. Trump is saying,” said Poul Bjoern Strand, 70, an advertising worker.
On the possibility of ceding territory, he said: “That’s not what the Greenlanders want, that’s not what the Danish people want, and … I cannot believe that Danes are going to follow that.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of the European countries that had faced Trump’s threat of tariffs over Greenland, underlined the need for European NATO allies to do more to secure the Arctic region and stressed that it is “a common transatlantic interest.”
An aurora borealis is seen in the sky above Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)
“We will protect Denmark, Greenland, the north from the threat posed by Russia,” Merz said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. “We will uphold the principles on which the transatlantic partnership is founded, namely sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“We support talks between Denmark, Greenland [and] the United States on the basis of these principles,” aiming for closer co-operation, he said. “It is good news that we are making steps into that right direction. I welcome President Trump’s remarks from last night — this is the right way to go.”
LISTEN | What kind of pushback can European allies mount?:
Front Burner29:34Is Europe ready for the Greenland fight?
In a provocative speech to the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney made the case that the rules of international economics and politics are “in the midst of a rupture, not a transition”.
Carney went on to say that middle powers like Canada need to work together to find their own coalitions to survive and stand up to countries using economic coercion – a clear reference to the Trump administration.
This comes after Trump’s stunning threats earlier this week to slap tariffs on European countries like France, Britain, and Germany over their support of Greenland’s sovereignty. It has pushed the relationship between the U.S. and Europe to the brink.
Carney said he stands with our European allies in support of Greenland. But what kind of pushback can they mount? And what kind of domestic pressures are European leaders facing in their own backyard?
Michaela Kuefner is the Chief Political Editor at DW News and joins us from Davos, Switzerland.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts]