Commentary by HARTMUT BÜHL, European News Journal, Paris
In Trump’s world, and in his idea of ethics, everything is for sale. He wants Greenland to become American, so he proposed to buy the large frozen island, populated by only about 57,000 inhabitants. In the mind of the American real estate mogul, nothing is more normal than this type of “deal”.
But ultimately, what is it all about?
Greenland is a key territory. The island is both a gateway to the North American continent, to which it belongs geographically but also an autonomous territory of an EU member state, Denmark. The government in Copenhagen continues to repeat that its Arctic territory is not for sale, as do most Greenlanders.
A relapse into old times
Sometimes, I feel like I’ve been transported back to the 19th century, when the leaders of empires tried to expand their territory at any cost…
Trump is not the first American to have cast his eye over Greenland. The first attempts to buy the island – without success – go back 150 years, shortly after the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867. In 1946, US President Harry Truman made another attempt to buy Greenland for $100 million in gold, again without success.
The peacemaker’s new plaything
Whereas Trump has hitherto been obsessed with his extravagant idea of becoming a peacemaker in the world, and after his “victory” in Caracas where he captured Venezuelan dictator Maduro and his wife, we heard every day about his obsession with owning Greenland at any cost, if not by purchase, then by military conquest!
Let us recall that Trump has already proposed that Canada should become an integral part of the United States. And didn’t he plan to transform the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”?
This time, however, Europeans were alarmed at Trump’s idea of taking over Greenland by force and prepared resistance. His plan for Greenland appeared militarily feasible and, if successful, would likely have sealed the fate of NATO.
A robust European answer
The European Union, voluntarily founded as a soft power under the tutelage of American security and defence, is at last starting to realise that it is trapped between two powers hostile to Europe, whose autocrats sit in the Kremlin and the White House.
European leaders understood full well that by giving in this time, the Union would risk losing a lot. And they prepared a robust answer for the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Trump was about to portray himself as the undisputed ruler of the west.
Brussels was careful to make its conditions known beforehand: no attack on a NATO country and no ratification of the June 2025 trade deal with the European Union, which Trump referred to as his greatest success! In the face of this mounting opposition from the Europeans to the takeover of Greenland, Trump trotted out his favourite threat: his infamous special tariffs on those countries.
Trump’s turn-around
Europe indeed has had enough of Trump’s immature behaviour, which puts not only western values but the whole world at risk. The President of the European Commission, knowing that she has strong backing from the Member States, made a powerful speech in Davos, eschewing escalation but bringing the American down to earth. And Trump – credible for once – promised in his follow-up Davos speech, that he would not use military force to take Greenland and that there would be no new tariffs.
The president of the European Council, António Costa, confirmed, in an ad hoc European Council meeting in Brussels the next day, the Union’s desire for stable relations with America, respecting international law. He announced that the Union will start the ratification process for the June 2025 trade deal.
“Europe has had enough of Trump’s immature behaviour, which puts not only western values but the whole world at risk.”
However, Costa was relatively reluctant concerning Trump’s new baby, his “Board of Peace” founded as a rival to the United Nations, which is headed by the US president himself and based exclusively on his own moral compass. “We have serious doubts about a number of elements in the charter of the Board of Peace related to its scope, its governance and its compatibility with the UN Charter”, Costa said.
Let’s stay vigilant
My hope is that Trump will finally learn that a stable world order and cooperation with Europe will deliver a better outcome for his own country, which is already suffering from his erratic behaviour, his disregard for institutions and his repression.
But I fear that Trump has other poisonous arrows in his quiver. That’s why I say, let’s remain vigilant and united and put our hopes also in the American public, which is beginning to understand into whose hands it has placed itself.
