NATO CHIEF CANNOT NEGOTIATE ON BEHALF OF GREENLAND OR DENMARK, SAYS DANISH PM
By Guardian-Jon Henley- Europe correspondent - Thu 22 Jan 2026 12.54 GMT First published on Thu 22 Jan 2026 10.37 GMT
Mette Frederiksen makes comments after European leaders give cautious welcome to US president’s tariff U-turn
The Danish government has said Mark Rutte cannot negotiate on behalf of Denmark or Greenland over the future of the Arctic island, as the broad outlines of a deal apparently struck by the Nato secretary general and Donald Trump began to emerge.
The US president said after meeting Rutte on Wednesday the “framework of a future deal” had been found to settle the transatlantic dispute over Greenland following weeks of escalating tensions that risked the biggest breakdown in relations in decades.
Speaking on Thursday, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, welcomed the progress that had been made but said the situation was still “difficult and serious”.
Pointedly, she added: “It is only Denmark and Greenland themselves that can make decisions” on issues concerning them. “We can negotiate all political aspects – security, investment, the economy – but we cannot negotiate our sovereignty.”
Echoing her remarks, the Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said Rutte “cannot negotiate an agreement” on Denmark or Greenland’s behalf.
However, he said, Rutte was working “loyally to maintain unity within Nato” and it was “very positive” that the alliance wanted to do more to strengthen Arctic security. “We are in a much better place today than we were yesterday,” he said.
Rutte told Reuters western allies would need to step up their presence in the Arctic as part of the framework deal agreed late on Wednesday with the US after Trump walked back his repeated threats to seize the island.
“We will come together in Nato with our senior commanders to work out what is necessary,” Rutte said on Thursday. “I have no doubt we can do this quite fast. Certainly I would hope for 2026, I hope even early in 2026,” he told the news agency.
Rutte earlier told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he had had a “very good discussion” with Trump on how Nato allies could ensure Arctic security, including not just Greenland but the seven nations with land in the Arctic.
“One workstream coming out of yesterday … is to make sure when it comes to Greenland, particularly, that we ensure that the Chinese and the Russians will not gain access to the Greenland economy [or] militarily to Greenland,” he said.
Trump abruptly backed away on Wednesday from his promise to use tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, and also ruled out the use of force, stepping back from weeks of aggressive rhetoric.
At the weekend he threatened to impose a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland unless they dropped their objections to his Greenland plans, prompting EU leaders to consider retaliation.
The bloc’s leaders are due to gather in Brussels later on Thursday for an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the unpredictable US president amid a lingering sense that transatlantic ties had been irreparably damaged by his Greenland grab.
Trump has repeatedly said the US needs to take control of the territory for “national security”, despite the US already having a military base on the island and a bilateral agreement with Denmark allowing it to significantly expand its presence there.
The dispute has plunged trade relations between the EU and the US into chaos, forcing the bloc to consider retaliatory measures, and also risks unravelling the Nato transatlantic alliance that has guaranteed western security for decades.
While details of the proposed agreement remain scant, Trump said it was “a deal that everybody’s very happy with. It’s the ultimate long-term deal. It puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
Media reports suggested the basis would probably lie in a renegotiation of the 1951 bilateral defence pact, which was updated in 2004 to take account of Greenlandic home rule. The US has one base on Greenland, the Pituffik space base.
Frederiksen said Denmark wished to “continue a constructive dialogue with its allies on ways to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the US Golden Dome [missile-defence system], provided this is done with respect for our territorial integrity”.
European officials welcomed news of a deal, while expressing caution. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, claimed a victory of sorts, saying that Italy had “always maintained it is essential to continue fostering dialogue” between allies.
The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said it was “positive we are now on the path to de-escalation”, but added that the US, Canada and Europe must now “continue to work together within Nato to strengthen security in the Arctic region”.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, welcomed Trump’s shift in rhetoric. “Despite all the frustration and anger of recent months, let us not be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership,” he said in a speech at Davos. “We Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust is on which Nato rests. In an age of great powers, the United States, too, will depend on this trust. It is their – and our – decisive competitive advantage.”
France’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, said the announcement was “a first positive sign that things are moving in the right direction. The magic word for the last 48 hours has been de-escalation. Right now, we’re de-escalating.”
Sweden’s foreign affairs minister, Maria Stenergard, suggested resistance from Denmark’s allies had “had an effect”. European leaders had lined up to criticise what the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called Trump’s “new colonialism”.
The bloc also floated retaliatory economic action, including tariffs on €93bn (£80bn) of US imports and the bloc’s “big bazooka” – its “anti-coercion instrument” – which would limit US access to European markets including investment and digital services.
Teresa Ribera, a European Commission executive vice-president, said the EU needed to speak out against Trump. “Silence is too ambiguous, too dangerous,” she said in an interview with La Vanguardia. “If Europe remains silent in the face of Trump, it fuels fear.”
A European diplomat agreed that a strong EU reaction had influenced Trump. “EU firmness and unity have contributed to get him to change his position,” they said. “Obviously also internal political pressure in the US, and market reaction.”
However, Germany’s vice-chancellor, Lars Klingbeil, said Europe “should wait and see what substantive agreements are reached. No matter what solution is now found, everyone must understand that we cannot sit back, relax and be satisfied.”
Trump’s push for Greenland, first floated in 2019, had intensified dramatically over recent weeks, with the president 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!!!”
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