Europe
condemns Trump’s ‘new colonialism’ as Greenland crisis grows
US
president says there is ‘no going back’ on goal of controlling Arctic territory
as Emmanuel Macron leads European resistance
Jon
Henley, Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, Graeme Wearden in Davos and Pippa Crerar
Tue 20
Jan 2026 18.38 CET
European
leaders have lined up to condemn Donald Trump’s “new colonialism” and warn that
the continent was facing a crossroads as the US president said there was no
going back on his goal of controlling Greenland.
After
weeks of aggressive threats by Trump to seize the vast Arctic island, which is
a largely autonomous part of Denmark, Emmanuel Macron, the French president,
said on Tuesday he preferred “respect to bullies” and the “rule of law to
brutality”.
Macron
told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that now was “not a time
for new imperialism or new colonialism”, criticising the “useless aggressivity”
of Trump’s pledge to levy tariffs on countries that opposed a US takeover of
Greenland.
The US
was seeking to “weaken and subordinate Europe” by demanding “maximum
concessions” and imposing tariffs that were “fundamentally unacceptable – even
more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty”, he
said, wearing sunglasses because of an eye condition.
Trump’s
push for Greenland has intensified in recent weeks, with the president saying
the US would take control of the vast Arctic island “one way or the other” and:
“Now it is time, and it will be done!!!” He is expected to visit Davos and give
a speech on Wednesday.
The
European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said Trump’s threat to
impose a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany,
the UK, the Netherlands and Finland unless they dropped their objections to his
plans was “a mistake”.
Appearing
to call Trump’s trustworthiness into question, she also noted the EU and US had
“agreed to a trade deal last July, and in politics, as in business, a deal is a
deal. When friends shake hands, it must mean something.”
Europeans,
she added, “consider the people of the US not just our allies, but our
friends”. She warned against plunging relations into “a downward spiral”, but
said the EU’s response, if necessary, would be “unflinching, united and
proportional”.
Belgium’s
prime minister, Bart De Wever, said Europe was “at a crossroads” and “so many
red lines are being crossed” by Trump that the continent had to stand up for
itself or “lose its dignity … The most precious thing you can have in a
democracy.”
De Wever
said he would “like to confirm that [the US] is an ally, but they have to
behave like an ally”. Eighty years of Atlanticism could be coming to an end, he
said. “A Nato country is threatening another Nato country with military
invasion.”
Trump
posted on social media on Tuesday that during a call with the Nato secretary
general, Mark Rutte, he had “expressed … very plainly, Greenland is imperative
for National and World Security. There can be no going back.”
He posted
an AI image of himself, the US vice-president, JD Vance, and the secretary of
state, Marco Rubio, planting a US flag next to a sign reading: “Greenland, US
territory est. 2026.” Another image showed a map with Canada and Greenland as
part of the US.
Separately,
the US president posted a message to him from Macron, who said he did “not
understand what you are doing on Greenland”. The US president had earlier
threatened to hit French wine and champagne with a 200% tariff if Macron did
not accept an invite to join his “Board of Peace”.
The
spiralling row has plunged trade relations between the EU and the US into fresh
chaos, forcing the bloc to consider retaliatory measures, and also risks
unravelling the Nato transatlantic alliance that has guaranteed western
security for decades.
The
Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, fresh from a trip to Beijing to forge a
new Canada-China partnership, told Davos the world’s “middle powers” need to
work together to build a better world order.
“It seems
that every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry.
That the rules-based order is fading,” Carney said in a speech that ended with
a standing ovation.
Carney
said the world faces “the end of a pleasant fiction and the dawn of a harsh
reality of geopolitics” in which the great powers are unconstrained. “We know
the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a
strategy”, he said.
UK prime
minister Keir Starmer’s response to Trump’s Greenland threats has been more
muted than those of his French and Canadian counterparts, but it has shifted
slightly from his usually deeply cautious approach towards the US president.
He told
his cabinet on Tuesday that US tariffs were “the wrong thing to do”, while his
government is pressing ahead with plans - criticised by the US president as an
“act of great stupidity” - to cede the Chagos islands to Mauritius.
While
Starmer’s strategy to deal with Trump - maintaining a steady approach in the
face of the chaos the US president has unfurled - is being called into question
at home, sources said he for now has his cabinet’s backing. “I don’t think we’d
gain very much from attacks just to get some headlines for a day or two, only
to cause irreparable damage to a partnership that’s so important to us,” one
said. In what appeared to be an attempt to smooth over US-UK relations, the US
House speaker Mike Johnson told parliament that he had spoken “at length” to
Trump yesterday on Monday - and that his mission in London was to “help calm
the waters”.
Trump is
due to be at the WEF gathering with EU leaders who are mulling retaliatory
measures that could include a package of tariffs on €93bn (£80bn) of US imports
that has been suspended for six months.
Another
option is the bloc’s “anti-coercion instrument” (ACI), which has never been
used but would limit US access to public tenders, investments or banking
activities and restrict trade in services, including digital services.
Senior
MEPs on the European parliament’s international trade committee are expected to
announce on Wednesday the formal suspension of ratification of the EU-US trade
deal sealed in July, after a deal between the largest political groups, a
European parliament source said.
However,
the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said that US relations with Europe
were strong and urged partners to “take a deep breath” and let tensions over
Greenland “play out”.
Bessent
said a solution would be found and European “hysteria” was unjustified. “It’s
been 48 hours. Sit back, relax,” he said. “I am confident the leaders will not
escalate and that this will work out in a manner that ends up in a very good
place for all.”
Greenland’s
prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said in the capital, Nuuk, that it was
“unlikely” military force would be used, but it could be. “Greenland is part of
Nato, and if there is an escalation, it will have consequences for the outside
world,” he said.
The
Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, speaking in the Danish parliament,
said that “the worst may still be ahead of us”. Frederiksen added that her
country had “never sought conflict. We have consistently sought cooperation.”
Trump has
repeatedly said the US needs to take control of Greenland for “national
security”, despite the US already having a military base on the island and a
bilateral agreement with Denmark allowing it to massively expand its presence
there.
Von der
Leyen said in her speech that the EU was working on a package for Arctic
security based on Greenlandic and Danish sovereignty, a big investment surge in
Greenland, and cooperation with the US in the region.
The
Danish public broadcaster TV2 reported that 58 Danish troops had landed in
Greenland on Tuesday to join about 60 others who were dispatched earlier for a
multinational military exercise, Operation Arctic Endurance.
European
leaders are considering establishing a more permanent military presence in the
high north to help guarantee security in the Arctic region, a key US demand,
the Swedish defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.
Ukraine’s
president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had no plans to travel to Davos but
could change his plans if his delegation and US officials make a breakthrough
in peace efforts aimed at ending the war in his country.
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