Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks throughout a media convention on the EU Summit in Brussels, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
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Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
In a hanging collective rebuke to President Trump, the leaders of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK issued a joint assertion Sunday condemning latest U.S. tariff threats tied to navy actions they’ve taken in Greenland.
Within the assertion, leaders of the eight international locations underscored their dedication to shared NATO objectives, saying that they stood in “full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland. Additionally they reaffirmed their willingness to “have interaction in a dialogue primarily based on the ideas of sovereignty and territorial integrity” in response to President Trump’s repeated threats to take management of Greenland, which is at present an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
On Saturday night time, President Trump had written on his Reality Social platform that he would impose tariffs on imports from the eight international locations. Trump’s phrases got here after the international locations, that are all in NATO, deployed navy personnel to Greenland in latest days, to take part in a Danish-led Arctic train often called ‘Arctic Endurance’.
Trump stated America would levy a ten p.c tariff on items from the eight international locations beginning on February 1. He claimed these tariffs would rise to 25 p.c on June 1, and stay in place “till such time as a Deal is reached for the Full and Whole buy of Greenland” by the USA.
Of their joint response, the eight NATO international locations stated that Trump’s proposed tariffs “undermine transatlantic relations and danger a harmful downward spiral.”
“As members of NATO, we’re dedicated to strengthening Arctic safety as a shared transatlantic curiosity,” the leaders stated. “The pre-coordinated Danish train ‘Arctic Endurance’ carried out with Allies, responds to this necessity. It poses no menace to anybody.”
The coordinated assertion displays an unusually express diplomatic pushback by key U.S. allies. As well as, some particular person European leaders issued their very own particular person criticisms.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned using tariffs in opposition to allies, calling it “utterly fallacious”. A spokesman for the UK Prime Minister later stated Starmer had shared this view with President Trump in a cellphone name on Sunday. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated Sweden wouldn’t be “blackmailed,” whereas Norway’s prime minister pressured that “threats don’t have any place amongst allies.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen additionally made a press release, praising “nice help” from European allies. “I’m happy with the constant messages from the remainder of the continent: Europe is not going to be blackmailed,” Frederiksen stated.
European overseas coverage leaders made clear that commerce coercion would hurt the broader transatlantic relationship and probably derail different ongoing negotiations.
One unnamed French official near International Minister Jean-Noël Barrot informed NPR that Paris had mobilized its diplomatic equipment “to coordinate a European response to the brand new, unacceptable tariff threats issued by President Trump.”
The official added that Barrot had been in talks along with his British, German and EU counterparts and was in touch with all affected overseas ministers and European Parliament political teams.
Odd residents have additionally registered their opposition to President Trump’s latest threats, with massive protests in Denmark and Greenland in opposition to American strain alongside the broader NATO debates about Arctic safety in addition to the diplomatic scramble.
In his social media put up on Saturday, Trump framed Europe’s actions as a part of “a really harmful scenario” and argued the tariffs had been obligatory to guard “International Peace and Safety” – language that has been extensively challenged by European officers and analysts as exaggerated or unfounded given the context of NATO cooperation within the Arctic.
This newest tariff standoff follows weeks of more and more assertive U.S. rhetoric relating to Greenland and Arctic coverage. Trump has repeatedly declared Greenland — an unlimited, sparsely populated territory — as strategically very important to U.S. nationwide safety, citing its location and untapped mineral sources.
Greenlandic and Danish leaders have constantly pushed again, insisting the territory shouldn’t be on the market, most just lately throughout discussions between the 2 international locations’ overseas ministers and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Domestically, the tariff choice has sparked pushback not solely overseas however amongst U.S. lawmakers. Bi-partisan voices in Congress have criticized the method as damaging to NATO cohesion, and warned that it may jeopardize U.S. credibility.
Analysts have identified that the USA already maintains a navy presence in Greenland, which has shrunk dramatically over the many years, and so query the need of coercive financial measures tied to territorial ambitions.
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