Greenland is testing Europe's willingness to stand up to Trump. It's failing | Nathalie Tocci
Greenland is testing Europe's willingness to stand up to Trump. It's failing | Nathalie Tocci
There are rational explanations for the continent’s muted response to Donald Trump’s threats – but that’s not how you deal with this president, says Guardian Europe columnist Nathalie Tocci
Donald Trump’s antics over the past week have put paid to the refrain, often heard in Europe, that the president should be taken “seriously but not literally”. It turns out that Trump literally wants Greenland. He doubled down on his aggressive rhetoric in a raging 45-minute call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, a few days ago, threatening crippling tariffs unless she agreed to sell the autonomous territory to the US. In response to Denmark’s sharp increase in military spending for the Arctic, including ships and drones, he derided Copenhagen’s “dog-sled” defences for Greenland, the world’s largest non-continental island, which pale in comparison with the strength of the US military base there.
The threat to take over the territory of a European country by force is something that Europeans now know all too well. Russia has repeatedly threatened east European countries, making good on those threats by invading Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine since 2014. Yet many Europeans are gobsmacked that such a threat is now coming from its greatest ally.
That said, the reaction has been muted. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council president, António Costa, have said nothing, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, while speaking out initially, have joined in the collective silence. What’s going on?
Crippling tarrifs you say, a quick Google says Greenland export $36M to the US in 2022, which is basically nothing. And don't forget the people who pay the tarrifs are the American people not the country the tarrifs apply to. Just because someone says I want to buy that, it doesn't mean it's for sale. The only way the US will get Greenland is by invasion and occupation. So the EU response of ignoring the giant toddler is probably the correct move.
The tariffs would be on Denmark or even possibly Europe as a whole.
This. And by replying we would acknowledge that the subject has any matter. We say more with this silence.
What a bullshit article is this.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/nathalie-tocci
That's quite some fearmongering.Dictator day 1
He's been declaring war without using that actual word. But history has showed time and again this is literally war.
I fucking hate that man.
It'll be funny if this is how WWIII starts and we get EU + China vs US + Russia.
Do you mean WWIII?
Oh yeah.
What a twist, the movies write themselves.
Nothing good has ever come from just trying to ignore a bully.
No-one is ignoring him. The Danish diplomacy corps is on high alert, and tons of effort is going into both securing support from Europe and trying to talk the US down.
They just don't do diplomacy through Twitter. Public mud-throwing is Trump's game, no need to fight him on his terms.
There is a need to fight tho. I understand the world is used to using diplomacy first, but if the last few years has taught us anything it should be that current rulers the world over don't listen to it at all. They want what they want and will take it no matter the cost.
Trump has learned all he needs to know from Putin.