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European leaders took a firm stand against Donald Trump on Tuesday evening following his administration’s alarming suggestion of deploying the U.S. military to take control of Greenland.
In a united front, prominent figures such as Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a joint statement pledging to protect Greenland’s “territorial integrity.” This declaration came amid rising tensions between the United States and Denmark, a NATO ally, over the past few days.
The development follows reports that Trump and his senior advisers are contemplating strategies that include either purchasing the Danish territory or assuming responsibility for its defense, according to a high-ranking administration official.
The White House has stated that the possibility of military intervention remains on the table and emphasized that this issue is “not going away,” despite the objections from NATO leaders.
This stance has caused alarm among America’s NATO allies, who have shown strong support for Denmark in the face of Trump’s renewed threats to take over Greenland, particularly in the aftermath of Nicolas Maduro’s capture in Venezuela.
In a public statement, seven leaders – from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark – declared they will ‘not stop defending’ Greenland despite the threats.
They called America an ‘essential partner’ and reiterated that the US and Denmark signed a defense agreement in 1951.
‘Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,’ they said.
US President Donald Trump speaks during the House Republican Party (GOP) member retreat at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 6
A joint statement from leaders vowed to defend Greenland’s ‘territorial integrity’
The joint statement was from leaders including Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured on January 6)
The statement added that the allies will continue to defend Greenland’s ‘territorial integrity’ and the ‘inviolability of borders’.
Trump has argued that the US needs to control the island, which is more than three times the size of Texas, to ensure NATO security against rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.
He hinted on Sunday that a decision on Greenland may come ‘in about two months,’ once the situation in Venezuela has stabilised.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday: ‘President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.
‘The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.’
It comes as Trump claimed on Tuesday night that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of ‘high-quality, sanctioned oil’ to the US.
He added: ‘This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately.’
Trump’s renewed claims over self-governing Greenland have stoked concerns in Europe that the NATO alliance could be about to fracture.
Snow-covered buildings in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 7, 2025
Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, at the Elysee Summit of the Coalition of Volunteers in Paris on Tuesday
Europe’s backing came after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller cast doubt on the legitimacy of Denmark’s territorial claim over Greenland in an interview with CNN on Monday night.
He also said there was ‘no need’ to consider whether the US might carry out a military operation to take it over because ‘nobody is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland’.
Miller’s wife further inflamed tensions after Maduro’s capture by tweeting a map of Greenland covered by the American flag, captioning the post on X: ‘Soon.’
Trump on Saturday after Maduro’s capture touted the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, his version of the Monroe Doctrine, the 1800s-era policy that warned against European colonisation in the Americas articulated by President James Monroe.
Greenland’s position above the Arctic Circle makes it a prime piece of real estate in the geopolitical map of the world.
Katie Miller, the wife of President Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Steven Miller, posted a map of Greenland covered by the American flag to X just hours after the US struck Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro
Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland last January
Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security.
The island, 80 per cent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people who until now have been largely ignored by the rest of the world.
Its location off the northeastern coast of Canada made it crucial to the defense of North America during World War II, when the US occupied Greenland.
Following the Cold War, the Arctic was largely an area of international cooperation.
But the Arctic ice is thinning, promising to create a northwest passage for international trade and reigniting competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources.
In 2018, China declared itself a ‘near-Arctic state’ in an effort to gain more influence in the region.
China has also announced plans to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, which has created economic links with countries around the world.
US Army Green Berets are seen during Arctic Edge 24 in Greenland. The territory is known for its untapped mineral wealth and NATO alliance
US Vice President JD Vance visited Greenland last March, specifically the US military’s Pituffik Space Base
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move, saying: ‘Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarisation and competing territorial claims?’
Meanwhile, Russia has sought to assert its influence over wide areas of the Arctic in competition with the US, Canada, Denmark and Norway.
Moscow has also sought to boost its military presence in the polar region, home to its Northern Fleet and a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons. Russian military officials have said that the site is ready for resuming the tests, if necessary.
The Russian military in recent years has been restoring old Soviet infrastructure in the Arctic and building new facilities. Since 2014, the Russian military has opened several military bases in the Arctic and worked on reconstructing airfields.
European leaders’ concerns were heightened following Russia´s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia is worried about NATO’s activities in the Arctic and will respond by strengthening the capability of its armed forces there.
‘Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernising military infrastructure,’ Putin said in March at a policy forum in the Arctic port of Murmansk.
He added, however, that Moscow was holding the door open to broader international cooperation in the region.
The US Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951.
It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO.
Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.
Denmark is strengthening its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic.
The government last year announced a roughly $2.3billion deal with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing Danish territory, to ‘improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty’.
The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and tasked with the ‘surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,’ according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island.
The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is also stationed in Greenland.
Greenland is also a rich source of the so-called rare earth minerals that are a key component of mobile phones, computers, batteries and other hi-tech gadgets that are expected to power the world’s economy in the coming decades.
That has attracted the interest of the US and other Western powers as they try to ease China’s dominance of the market for these critical minerals.
Development of Greenland’s mineral resources is challenging because of the island’s harsh climate, while strict environmental controls have proved an additional hurdle for potential investors.
