Trump Says He Will Discuss Greenland With NATO Chief Rutte

President Trump spoke during meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos, saying he will discuss Greenland with Rutte. Trump also said the Danish foreign minister has not told him directly that Denmark rejects his offer to negotiate the US acquisition of Greenland.

President Donald Trump upped the pressure on Europe to cede control of Greenland or face the consequences, saying that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization owes it to the US to grant it full rights to the Arctic island.

In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday after prompting days of transatlantic tensions over his plans, Trump said that he was seeking “immediate negotiations” on acquiring the sovereign Danish territory for national security reasons.

The president ruled out the use of military force, but he insinuated that he would weigh Europe’s response to his demands when considering the US’s commitment to NATO going forward.

“You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember,” the president said.

Denmark’s immediate reaction was “no.”

“We will not enter into any negotiations on the basis of giving up fundamental principles,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Copenhagen. “That is something we will never do.” It “goes without saying” that Danes clearly reject ceding Greenland to the US, he added.

Trump, asked later Wednesday about Rasmussen’s remarks, said that he wanted to hear from Denmark in person.

“If he wants to tell me, he’ll tell me that to my face,” Trump said during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. Trump said he would discuss the issue with Rutte, who he saw as “frankly more important” than Danish officials.

Earlier, Trump cast the request as a “small ask” compared to the defense shield that the US has offered NATO countries for decades.

“What I’m asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located, that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection,” he said.

Trump’s speech was closely watched for any signs that he was backing off his demands to take the world’s largest island, after triggering strong pushback from allies in eastern Europe to the Nordic nations as well as heavyweights Germany, France and the UK. European Union leaders are planning an extraordinary summit to discuss a response to Trump’s Greenland threats, including tariffs on goods from European nations that oppose him.

Still, his vow not to use force is likely to prompt at least some exhalation in European capitals and on Wall Street.

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force,” he said. “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

Asked later to clarify his suggestion that he would “remember” if Europe did not accede to his demands, Trump declined, telling a reporter to “figure that out yourself.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told national broadcaster YLE that Trump removing force from the table meant “the catastrophe has been avoided,” and diplomatic work should proceed on strengthening Arctic security.

In his speech, Trump doubled down on his desires, deriding Europe’s liberal democracies, their governments’ policies, NATO’s effectiveness and singling out individual leaders including Canada’s Mark Carney and Emmanuel Macron of France for criticism.

Faced with Washington’s intransigence, Greenland’s government is already making preparations for an invasion, though it’s still seen as an unlikely scenario. Canada’s military has meanwhile modeled how it would respond to an American incursion after Trump publicly talked about the country as a potential 51st state, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

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