Europe on collision course with Trump after demanding US stop threats to seize Greenland

Europe has hit back after Donald Trump threatened to annex Greenland, days after toppling Venezuela’s leadership with the shock capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

The American leader said the Arctic island is “so strategic right now” and that annexation would benefit both the European Union and the US.

“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he told The Atlantic, sparking waves of condemnation across Europe. “We need it for defence.”

Mr Trump has had his eyes on the territory since 2019 when he first publicly floated the idea of purchasing the country from Denmark, which runs it as an autonomous and self-governing entity.

His comments drew widespread backlash from the EU, and European countries including Nato members France, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Finland and Iceland, which emphasised their vehement opposition to the plan.

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“The EU will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” EU spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, said on Monday.

“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of a member state of the European Union is questioned.”

The comments come amid a string of barely veiled threats to a host of other countries over the weekend as Mr Trump warned Mexico to “get its act together” and effectively told Colombian president Gustavo Petro that his country could be the next to face military action.

The US leader also suggested that Cuba was “ready to fall” and may not need US intervention.

Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen warned that Mr Trump’s statements about Greenland should not be dismissed as bluster and must be taken seriously.

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“Unfortunately, I think the American president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland,” she told public broadcaster, DR.

“I have made it very clear where the Kingdom of Denmark stands, and Greenland has repeatedly said that it does not want to be part of the United States.

“If the United States attacks another Nato country, everything stops.”

The UN Security Council held an emergency session on Monday as UN chief António Guterres said the US had set a “dangerous precedent” for the world order after its actions in Venezuela. He told ambassadors that respect for national sovereignty “political independence and territorial integrity” must be maintained.

Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen urged Trump to give up “fantasies of annexation”, stating that his country was “not for sale”.

“Threats, pressure and talk of annexation have no place between friends,” Mr Nielsen wrote in a social media post on Monday.

“That is not how you speak to a people who have shown responsibility, stability and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation.”

He added that the country was “open to dialogue” via appropriate channels but not “random and disrespectful posts on social media”.

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“Greenland is our home and our territory. And that is how it will remain,” he added.

The country holds a largely untapped wealth of natural resources including oil and gas as well as natural earth minerals, zinc, copper, nickel and graphite. Its geographical location positioned between the North American Arctic and Europe.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer backed PM Frederiksen, saying: “I stand with her, and she’s right about the future of Greenland.”

Mr Starmer agreed with Danish calls for Mr Trump to stop proposing annexation, as he added: “Denmark is a close ally in Europe, it is a Nato ally, and it’s very important the future of Greenland is, as I say, for the Kingdom of Denmark, and for Greenland, and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”