Trump’s Venezuela attack deepens Europe’s Greenland dilemma

 

Trump’s Venezuela attack deepens Europe’s Greenland dilemma

 

Brussels insists it will defend national sovereignty — but won’t say how.

 

January 5, 2026 7:58 pm CET

By Zoya Sheftalovich and Victor Jack

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-venezuela-europe-greenland-dilemma-threats-dispute-territory-nato/

 

BRUSSELS — The EU's tepid response to Donald Trump's Venezuelan operation underscores how hard it is for Brussels to take a strong position on the U.S. president's threats to take over Greenland.

 

The European Commission on Monday sought to draw a distinction between the U.S. capture of Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro and Trump's renewed rhetoric about taking control of the Arctic territory, but couldn't say how it planned to deter the American from such a move.

 

"You would recall that Greenland is an ally to the U.S. and is also covered by the NATO alliance. And that is a big, big difference," Commission chief spokesperson Paola Pinho said. "So we therefore completely stand by Greenland and in no way do we see a possible comparison with what happened [in Venezuela]."

 

Greenland's Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen also played down the Venezuela comparison, emphasizing to reporters that his country is democratic and has been for many years. However, he warned, the government will now "sharpen [its] tone."

 

"Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies about annexation," Nielsen said in a social media post earlier Monday.

 

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen appeared to take Trump's threats at face value, warning that such an attack would spell the end of NATO. "The American president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland," she said. "If the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops ... including the security that has been established since the end of the second world war.”

 

Pressed repeatedly on what specific steps the EU could take to ward off Trump, the Commission demurred, saying only that it will "not stop defending" the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity — without clarifying how it planned to do that.

 

The Greenland quandary

World powers have in recent years sought to expand their Arctic footprints, and mineral-rich Greenland — which hosts a U.S. military base — is coveted for its strategic security and trade value.

 

While Greenland is a self-ruling territory of Denmark, it isn't part of the EU itself, having left its precursor, the European Communities, in 1985. But Greenlanders are EU citizens because Denmark is in the bloc.

 

"We need Greenland for a national security situation," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. "It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place."

 

Russia has ramped up defense investments in the Arctic in recent years, while China has occasionally joined Moscow in joint patrols — though experts note that little military activity has taken place near Greenland itself.

 

Greenland and Denmark have both repeatedly pushed back against Trump's overtures, insisting that Greenland is not for sale and that its future is a question for its own citizens, not Washington, to decide.

 

As for Trump's claim this weekend that the EU “needs” the U.S. to “have” Greenland, the Commission said this was "certainly not" the EU's position.

 

Yet the mildness of the response from Brussels illustrates the bind Europe finds itself in. Fearing potential retaliation from Trump on trade or Ukraine if he perceives harm to U.S. interests, the EU has mostly pulled its punches in responding to his saber-rattling.

 

NATO is also treading a fine line to avoid antagonizing the U.S. president. While many allies have so far brushed off an all-out Greenland incursion as implausible, Trump’s comments are beginning to stir anxiety — and defiance — within the alliance.

 

“We support Denmark fully — including their level of concern," said one senior NATO diplomat, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

 

Others argue the remarks should galvanize allies to step up their defense capabilities in the Arctic — which could also placate Trump.

 

“Some creative thinking is in order … to strengthen the Alliance’s presence around Greenland and thus address U.S. security concerns,” said a second senior NATO diplomat, noting the organization could dispatch more military equipment to the region as it did last year in the Baltic Sea and on NATO’s eastern flank.

 

“If the head of state of an ally says that part of allied territory … has ‘Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,’ then that should be taken very seriously,” they added.

 

Yet Trump's latest threat poses an “existential” challenge to NATO, said Ed Arnold, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, given there is no precedent for one country launching an outright attack on another within the alliance since its 1949 founding.

 

In a worst-case scenario — a U.S. military incursion — Denmark could unilaterally summon allies for talks about threats to its security, he said, but would then be hamstrung as Washington blocks a military response.

 

That would almost “certainly … mean the end of NATO as we know it,” Arnold said.

 

Arnold said there has been some increased Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic, with Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also acknowledging that point in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday.

 

Trump "has rightly pointed out that there is increased Chinese and Russian interest in this region," Wadephul said. "This affects our security interests. We are certainly prepared to discuss these issues with the U.S."

 

He said he planned to speak about the situation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio "in the near future," while underscoring the importance of respecting Greenland's territorial integrity.

 

Raphael Glucksmann, a French MEP from the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, suggested the EU should create "a permanent European military base in Greenland," which he said "would send a signal of firmness toward Trump and would allow us to kill the American argument about our inability to ensure Greenland's security."

 

Seb Starcevic contributed reporting.