{"id":395923,"date":"2026-01-06T19:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395923\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:39:05","slug":"european-leaders-rally-behind-greenland-amid-threats-of-a-trump-take-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395923\/","title":{"rendered":"European leaders rally behind Greenland amid threats of a Trump take-over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaders from major European powers have issued a joint statement rallying behind Greenland, saying the Arctic island belongs to its people, following a renewed threat by US President Donald Trump to take over the Danish territory.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump and officials from his administration have in recent days renewed calls for an American takeover of Greenland, an idea first voiced in 2019 during the first Trump presidency.<\/p>\n

A US military intervention in Venezuela has rekindled concerns among Danish leaders and European allies that Greenland might face a similar fate.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a day after US forces carried out their audacious operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Mr Trump again listed Greenland as another of the territories he would like to bring under American control.<\/p>\n

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has repeatedly said his constituents do not want to be part of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump says the United States needs Greenland for national security. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)<\/p>\n

In response to the White House’s rhetoric, the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark issued a joint statement on Tuesday, local time, upholding that: “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”<\/p>\n

The leaders said security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively with NATO allies, including the United States.<\/p>\n

“NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

Where will Trump send troops next?<\/a><\/p>\n

As the president flew back to Washington from his Florida Christmas break, he spoke to the press on Air Force One \u2014 and entertained the idea of targeting another four nations.<\/p>\n

“We and many other Allies have increased our presence, activities, and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries.”<\/p>\n

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof also expressed support for the joint statement through a post on X.<\/p>\n

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw: “No member should attack or threaten another member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Otherwise, NATO would lose its meaning if conflict or mutual conflicts occurred within the alliance.”<\/p>\n

The joint statement came a day after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller refused to rule out military action to take over the island<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else,” Mr Miller told CNN.<\/p>\n

“But we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”Greenland PM urges ‘respect’ for territorial integrity<\/p>\n

Greenland’s Prime Minister welcomed the European leaders’ pledge of solidarity and renewed his call to the US for a “respectful dialogue”.<\/p>\n

“The dialogue must take place with respect for the fact that Greenland’s status is rooted in international law and the principle of territorial integrity,” he said in a post on Facebook.<\/p>\n

To fend off US criticism over Greenland’s defence capabilities, Denmark last year pledged 42 billion Danish crowns ($9.7 billion) to boost its military presence in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Denmark maintains sovereignty over the island territory, which has a population of just 57,000 people. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)<\/p>\n

US Special Envoy Jeff Landry, asked about the Europeans’ joint statement, told CNBC on Tuesday: “Security should be a major concern for the United States.”<\/p>\n

Asked whether security should be handled in conjunction with NATO, he said: “I think we should ask the Greenlanders.”<\/p>\n

Mr Trump named Mr Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, as his special envoy to Greenland last month<\/a>, asking him to “lead the charge” for the island.<\/p>\n

Mr Landry said on Tuesday that Trump was offering Greenland economic opportunities but he did not think the president would take it by force.<\/p>\n

“I think that the president supports an independent Greenland with economic ties and trade opportunities for the United States,” Mr Landry said, adding that the US had more to offer than Europe.<\/p>\n

Island offers strategic benefits to US<\/p>\n

Mr Miller said on Monday that there was no need to think about the issue in the context of a military operation.<\/p>\n

“Nobody is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland,” he told CNN.<\/p>\n

Just hours after Saturday’s Venezuela operation, Mr Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, posted on X a map of Greenland painted with the Stars and Stripes, accompanied by the text “SOON”.<\/p>\n

Greenland, the world’s largest island but with a population of just 57,000 people, is not an independent member of NATO but is covered by Denmark’s membership of the Western alliance.<\/p>\n

The island’s strategic location between Europe and North America makes it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defence system.<\/p>\n

Its mineral wealth also aligns with Washington’s ambition to reduce reliance on Chinese exports.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders from major European powers have issued a joint statement rallying behind Greenland, saying the Arctic island belongs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6693,2490,10835,43,66172,44,211196,211197,5324,41,39,42,40,22474],"class_list":["post-395923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-denmark","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenland","tag-headlines","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty","tag-take-over","tag-threats","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}