Former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned that Europe must abandon attempts to flatter United States President Donald Trump and instead respond with strength and unity over his demands regarding Greenland, calling the crisis the most serious challenge to the alliance since its creation in 1949.
Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, Rasmussen said Trump's insistence that Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, should become part of the United States risked undermining NATO's foundations. "It's really the future of NATO that is at stake," Rasmussen said from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Rasmussen, who served as Denmark's prime minister from 2001 to 2009 and as NATO secretary general from 2009 to 2014, said conciliatory tactics had failed. "The time for flattering is over. It doesn't work," he said. "The fact is Trump only respects force and strength. And unity. That's exactly what Europe should demonstrate right now."
He argued that Europe should be prepared to retaliate economically if Washington follows through on threats to impose tariffs on NATO allies that send troops to Greenland. Rasmussen said the European Union's Anti-Coercion Instrument, sometimes described as the EU's economic "bazooka", should be seriously considered as a response.
Macron's message to Trump:
My friend. We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland. Let us try to build great things: 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us. Emmanuel
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Rutte's message to Trump:
Mr. President, dear Donald - what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can't wait to see you. Yours, Mark
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Trump has said United States ownership of Greenland is essential for American national security and has warned of tariffs on several European countries unless the United States is allowed to acquire the territory. In a recent exchange of text messages with Norway's prime minister, Trump said he had "done more for NATO than any other person since its founding" and that the alliance should now "do something for the United States".
Rasmussen said he was not directly criticising current NATO leaders, including Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has publicly praised Trump. However, he said Europe now needed a different strategy. "Europe must show that it can act together and defend its core interests," he said.
To defuse the crisis, Rasmussen proposed a three-point plan. First, he suggested updating a 1951 defence agreement between the United States and Denmark to allow for a stronger NATO presence in Greenland, rather than unilateral United States control.
Second, he called for a transatlantic investment pact to enable United States and European companies to jointly develop Greenland's mineral resources. Third, he proposed a "stabilisation and resilience compact" to prevent Chinese and Russian investment in critical Greenlandic sectors.
Rasmussen said he had not yet formally presented the plan to Danish or other European governments but intended to raise it with policymakers attending the Davos meeting. "I hope that an infusion of something concrete could bring this whole discussion into a more constructive phase," he said.