Trump-Greenland latest: Europe says tariff threat ‘risks dangerous downwards spiral’ in joint statement

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew takes a look at Donald Trump’s fixation with Greenland:

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Sunday that he had spoken with US president Donald Trump about the security situation in Greenland and the Arctic.

“We will continue working on this, and I look forward to seeing him in Davos later this week,” Rutte wrote on social media platform X.

We’re still waiting to hear any updates form the meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels today.

We’ve been hearing from Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, during a visit to the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

He says European countries are trying to get Donald Trump to abandon the idea that he has to own Greenland, and that Denmark is pursuing a diplomatic end to this dispute.

An agreement has been made with vice president JD Vance about a diplomatic track to resolve the dispute, he added.

Copenhagen is under no doubt about the strength of the support from the EU, he said, adding that Denmark needs the EU to respond – but that he won’t comment on what the response should be.

The US, he adds, is more than just Donald Trump – there are checks and balances in place which could make a takeover of Greenland difficult.

Exactly what kind of decision the EU ambassadors meeting could produce is unclear. But we have had some indication of how the economic bloc could respond.

A source close to Emmanuel Macron told the Reuters news agency that the French president was pushing to activate the “Anti-Coercion Instrument”, which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the US has a surplus with the bloc, including digital services.

Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament’s trade committee, and Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, echoed Mr Macron’s call, as did Germany’s engineering association.

But Irish prime minister Micheal Martin said that while there should be no doubt that the EU would retaliate, it was “a bit premature” to activate the anti-coercion instrument.

Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, who is closer to the US president than some other EU leaders, described the tariff threat on Sunday as “a mistake”, adding she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought.

“He seemed interesting in listening,” she told a briefing with reporters during a trip to Korea, adding she planned to call other European leaders later on Sunday.

Talks between European Union ambassadors from 27 countries may now be underway, after they were scheduled to begin at 4pm GMT.

Cyprus, holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency, summoned ambassadors to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday, as the bloc looks to prepare a unified response to Trump’s threat of tariffs against eight European countries.

It is unclear whether there will be any immediate updates form the meeting – but stay with us as we bring you any lines from the meeting.

Donald Trump first proposed US control over Greenland in 2019, towards the end of his first sting as president.

At the time, the idea was turned down and described as “absurd” by Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen.

But why is the US president so insistent that Washington should purchase the semi-autonomous Danish territory?

Greenland’s Arctic location is key: Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada, with more than two-thirds of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. That has made it crucial to the defence of North America since the Second World War.

Rare earth minerals: Greenland is 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.

US military presence in Greenland: The US Department of Defence operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was operated by the US after they and Denmark signed the Greenland Defence Agreement in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance operations for the US and Nato.

Security threats to the Arctic: 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. Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Russia is worried about Nato’s activities in the Arctic and will respond by strengthening its military capability in the polar region.

The sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark cannot be violated, the Irish premier has said.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin also warned that any trade war would be “very damaging to everybody in the world”.

“The territorial integrity, the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark cannot be violated,” he said in a post on the social media network X.

“Any trade war would be very damaging to everybody in the world, damaging to United States, damaging to Europe.

“Dialogue has to happen to prevent that from occurring.”

He also told Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE that it is “extraordinary, unacceptable”.

“We have a trade agreement with the United States, Europe has,” he said.

“That agreement was entered into in good faith by the European Union and the United States government.

“That should be the framework that governs trade between our two countries, and every effort should be made to ensure that it remains the framework that underpins trade between Europe and the United States.

“Any deviation from that or any trade war that essentially would flow from the collapse of such a deal would be very damaging to everybody in the world.

“The situation in Greenland is very clear from our perspective, the territorial integrity, the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark cannot be violated.”

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said China and Russia will benefit from the divisions between the US and Europe.

Kallas said in a post on social media: “If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.

“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity.”

US president Donald Trump said 10 per cent tariffs would come into effect on February 1 on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland.

The move was labelled “wrong” and “unacceptable” by French president Emmanuel Macron and prime minister Keir Starmer.