BRUSSELS: NATO needs a Greenland plan in case US President Donald Trump pursues American control over the Danish island, the Financial Times reported, citing a diplomat close to the alliance.
The diplomat told the newspaper that NATO could not keep hoping the issue would disappear. “We need an actual plan,” the official said, according to the report.
The official said Trump’s comments on Greenland did not appear to form part of a coherent US strategy.
European leaders largely view the remarks as a tactical move to make allies more flexible in negotiations, the FT reported. Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, a founding member of NATO.
The United States already operates Thule Air Base, now known as Pituffik Space Base, under long-standing defence arrangements with Denmark.
The issue has unsettled European officials because NATO’s Article 5 mutual-defence principle assumes threats come from outside the alliance. Any coercive move by one member against another’s territory would test the alliance’s political and legal framework.
Danish officials have repeatedly said Greenland is not for sale. European diplomats have also discussed a stronger NATO presence in the Arctic.
Read: Trump Greenland Envoy Faces Pushback in Nuuk
And possible updates to US-Denmark defence arrangements, while preserving Danish and Greenlandic sovereignty.
Trump has linked Greenland to US national security, Arctic routes, rare minerals and Russian and Chinese activity. However, European officials see the renewed pressure as part of wider bargaining over defence spending, trade and security policy.
