Macron warns against ‘new colonial approach’ after Trump says ‘no going back’ on Greenland – Europe live

Macron paints choice between ‘new colonial approach’ and ‘law of strongest’ and ‘effective multilateralism’

Macron says the choice is to “passively accept the law of the strongest” that would lead to “vassalisation and block” politics and “new colonial approach,” which I’m sure you get by now that he rejects, or to defend “effective multilateralism” that serves our interest.

He says that national sovereignty and independence are both a key part of that and he says that the recent French deployment of military to Greenland was part of a move to defend that – not “threatening anyone, but supporting an ally and another European country.”

He says that through its presidency in G7, France will also want to revive G7 as the forum for “frank dialogue” to prevent trade wars, protectionist escalation and other attempts to disrupt global order.

“So our objective through the G7 is to demonstrate that the world’s major powers are still capable of reaching a shared diagnosis of the global economy,” he says.

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Donald Trump begins White House press briefing

Almost an hour behind schedule, Donald Trump has finally appeared. As expected, he begins by touting what he considers the accomplishments of his administration so far.

Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the White House. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Updated at 13.52 EST

The White House press briefing room is packed ahead of Donald Trump’s anticipated appearance. He’ll of course be wanting to regale reporters with tales of his achievements from his first year back in office (journalists were earlier handed copies of a document entitled, “365 wins in 365 days. President Trump’s Return Marks New Era of Success”), but his threats to annex Greenland and against the US’s Nato allies will no doubt be at the forefront when it’s time to take questions.

The briefing was due to start at 1pm ET so it’s running a little late, we’ll bring you all the latest when it gets started.

Updated at 13.18 EST

A quick note before that gets under way about why Emmanuel Macron has been sporting a striking pair of aviator sunglasses in Davos today.

The French president is dealing with an eye condition that, while being “completely harmless”, has made his right eye red and puffy.

There is a press conference coming up shortly, at 6pm GMT, where White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will brief reporters on president Donald Trump’s first year back in office.

“In just one year, President Trump has accomplished more than many presidents do in eight. We’ve never had a president fight harder to deliver on the promises he made to the American people than President Trump,” Leavitt wrote on X earlier today.

“I’ll recap it all during the Press Briefing today at 1PM. Tune in!”

Inevitably, Trump’s pursuit of Greenland is likely to be top of the agenda and we will of course have all the top news lines that emerge. Stay tuned.

Updated at 12.36 EST

Tusk: ‘appeasement is always a sign of weakness’

The Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said Europe “cannot afford to be weak” in standing up to the US president Donald Trump.

In a post on X, he wrote:

Appeasement is always a sign of weakness. Europe cannot afford to be weak – neither against its enemies, nor ally.

Appeasement means no results, only humiliation.

European assertiveness and self-confidence have become the need of the moment.

Jakub Krupa

It’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today, but I am leaving with you with Tom Ambrose who will keep you up to date with the latest on Greenland and other key Europe lines.

As always, if you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Make sure to join us tomorrow too, as we are expecting to hear from US president Donald Trump, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, Finland’s president Alexander Stubb and Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki, among others.

And now over to Tom.

Updated at 12.17 EST

Nato ‘would have been in ash heap of history’ if it wasn’t for me, Trump says

Donald Trump is back online klaxon!

He has just posted on Truth Social claiming that “no single person, or president, has done more for Nato than president Donald J. Trump.”

He added:

“If I didn’t come along, there would be no Nato right now!!!

It would have been in the ash heap of History.

Sad, but TRUE!!! President DJT”

Somewhat confusingly, he also earlier “re-Truthed” – or reposted – a post claiming that China and Russia were “the boogeymen,” and “the real threat” was from the UN, Nato, and Islam.

Updated at 11.53 EST

Lithuania’s Nausėda calls for EU-US deal on Arctic security to end Greenland tensions

Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda suggested an agreement on sharing responsibility for the security of the Arctic and the North Atlantic could offer a way out of the standoff between the United States and Europe over Greenland.

Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda attends the 56th annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

In an interview with Reuters, Nausėda told Reuters that the Greenland row was overshadowing the war in Ukraine and playing into Russia’s hands and urged Washington to de-escalate the dispute.

“The best outcome would be just to agree on common responsibility on the security of the Arctic region and North Atlantic region. Is it possible to achieve? We should do our best to go this way, because this is the best way,” he said.

ShareEuropean parliament to freeze ratification of EU-US trade deal

Jennifer Rankin

in Brussels

The European parliament will freeze ratification of the EU-US trade deal in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats to European countries who oppose his takeover of Greenland.

General view of a plenary room of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The European parliament had been due to vote in the coming weeks on introducing 0% tariffs on US industrial goods, a key part of the deal signed between Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland last summer.

Senior MEPs on the European parliament’s international trade committee are expected to announce the formal suspension of ratification of the Turnberry deal on Wednesday, after a deal between the largest political groups, a European parliament source said.

The writing was on the wall after the leader of the European parliament’s largest political group, the centre-right European People’s Party, announced over the weekend that approval of 0% tariffs for the US must be put on hold.

“The EPP is in favour of the EU–US trade deal, but given Donald Trump’s threats regarding Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage,” Manfred Weber said after Trump’s X announcement.

Socialists, centrist MEPs and Greens had already called for the deal to be put on hold over Trump’s threats to Greenland.

ShareStubb says recent talks on Greenland ‘give me little bit of hope’ on finding way through tensions

Separately, colleagues on the business blog have picked up a line from Finland’s Alexander Stubb interview with Bloomberg earlier today (£), in which he said his recent talks “gave him a little bit of hope” that tensions over Greenland could be soon resolved.

“The latest conversations that I’ve had about this subject in the past two to three hours – this is how fast things are changing in the new foreign-policy world – give me a little bit of hope that we’ll find a way,” Stubb said.

ShareMacron declares ‘full support’ in message to Greenlandic people

A reporter with the Danish public broadcaster DR briefly spoke with France’s Emmanuel Macron after his speech in Davos, asking him for a brief message to the people of Greenland.

The French president replied:

“Full support. We stand with you, I love your country.”

He added “the people of Denmark and Greenlandic people are great people,” and noted he “went there a few months ago,” back in June.

You can watch a clip of his remarks here:

Macron tells Davos of shift towards ‘a world without rules’ – video

Updated at 12.26 EST

Gavin Newsom attacks Europe’s ‘complicity’ over Trump Greenland demands

Andrew Roth

Global affairs correspondent

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has decried Europeans for their “complicity” in failing to stand up to Donald Trump’s demands that he be allowed to buy or annex Greenland.

California governor Gavin Newsom speaks to the media as he attends the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Newsom, a frontrunner among Democratic candidates for president in 2028, told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday that Europeans were being “played” by Trump and that their efforts to negotiate with him were “not diplomacy, it’s stupidity”.

“It’s time to buck up, it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” he told reporters. “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought kneepads for all the world leaders … this is pathetic.”

Newsom regularly suggests that US politicians who cosy up to Trump should be given kneepads – making it easier to kneel – and he sells them on his website. “For all your groveling to Trump needs now in Republican red,” reads the advertisement for the kneepads, which bear a copy of Trump’s signature. “For the low low price of your soul.”

ShareEuropean leaders line up to condemn Trump’s ‘new colonialism’ in Davos – first take

Jon Henley

Europe correspondent

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.

Participants leave after a plenary session in the Congress Hall at the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Laurent Gilliéron/EPA

On Tuesday, after weeks of aggressive threats by Trump to seize the vast Arctic island, which is a largely autonomous part of Denmark, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said 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 oppose 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.

Trump has ramped up his push to grab Greenland in recent weeks, 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!!!”

The European Commission president 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, Ursula von der Leyen also noted that 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.”

ShareCanada ‘stands firmly’ with Greenland, Denmark, supports their ‘unique right’ to determine Greenland’s future, Canada’s Carney says

Meanwhile, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is now speaking on the main stage, outlining his thinking which he says was best defined by the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, as “value-based realism.”

Canada prime minister Mark Carney speaks during a plenary session in the Congress Hall at the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA

That’s an interesting link-up and worth noting that Carney specifically credits Stubb – a very influential figure in European politics and one of few European leaders regularly speaking to US Trump – for the term.

“We aim to be both principled and pragmatic.

Principled in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter and respect for human rights, and pragmatic in recognising that progress is often incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner will share all of our values.”

Carney says that in Ukraine, Canada remains “a core member” of the Coalition of the Willing, and a committed member of Nato.

He also turns to Greenland and says:

“We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future.”

He gets applause for that.

He also says Canada “strongly opposes” tariffs over Greenland and calls for talks to resolve these differences of view.

In the Q&A, he says say that while security discussions on securing the Arctic are legitimately important, he believes there is a “better outcome that come from the discussions that have been catalysed in the unusual way.”

He says “Russia is, without a question, a threat in the Arctic” and it “does lots of horrible things” as he takes this opportunity to condemn its continuous attacks on Ukraine.

But he says “the threat is more prospective than actual at this stage” and “we intend to keep it that way.”

Carney also spoke about Trump’s “board of peace” idea for Gaza, with business colleagues covering the key lines on that here.

Updated at 11.12 EST

Macron warns against ‘new colonial approach’ after Trump says ‘no going back’ on Greenland – Europe live | Europe