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Posted on 01/22/2026 9:46:01 PM PST by SeekAndFind
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Jan. 21 that the issue of Greenland remaining part of Denmark did not come up during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Rutte, in an interview with Fox News, was asked about Greenland’s sovereignty under a proposed framework Trump mentioned earlier in the day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations,” Rutte said. “[Trump] is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region—where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active—how we can protect it.”
Rutte told the crowd at the World Economic Forum that Trump was accurate about Chinese and Russian aggression in the region.
“When it comes to the Arctic, I think President Trump is right. Other leaders in NATO are right. We need to defend the Arctic,” Rutte, who previously served as the Dutch prime minister, said.
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart, in a Jan. 21 statement to The Epoch Times, said that discussions would focus on “ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of Allies, especially the seven Arctic Allies.”
Trump announced he had formed the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland and the broader Arctic region following his meeting with Rutte.
The president had threatened 10 percent tariffs on eight European NATO members—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland—opposing U.S. acquisition, set to take effect on Feb. 1.
He pulled back on that threat after signaling progress.
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 21 post on Truth Social. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.”
Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark since 2009 with about 56,000 residents, hosts a U.S. air base and is rich in critical minerals. Trump has repeatedly said that acquiring the island is essential for national security, blocking Russian or Chinese influence, and enabling a “Golden Dome” missile-defense system.
Negotiations on Greenland have included U.S. Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. Recent meetings included Danish and Greenlandic officials and U.S. counterparts on Jan. 14, and a congressional delegation to Denmark on Jan. 17.
Putin, addressing the Greenland issue for the first time in public, signaled on Jan. 21 that Russia would not object to the United States acquiring Greenland and said it was an issue for Denmark and the United States.
“What happens in Greenland is of no concern to us whatsoever,” Putin told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “Incidentally, Denmark has always treated Greenland as a colony and has been quite harsh, if not cruel, towards it. But that is a different matter altogether, and hardly anyone is interested in it now.”
Travis Gilmore and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Oh, that’s rich.
Putin talking about being “harsh and cruel.”
Trump says he got everything he really wanted. Denmark is still paying the Greenland inhabitants still.
Trump got what he wanted and it didn’t cost the US anything.
“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project [NATO] will have failed.”
Eisenhower, just before becoming head of NATO. 1951
Smart guy, Ike.
This whole Greenland project seems to be just another Trump negotiating bluff.
I do not think, he really wants Greenland to be US territory (it is drain on Denmark budget), but to make sure Greenland does not fall into China or Russia hands.
Let the Danes pay the subsidies, but US gets bases and investments. They pay, we get the safety and the profits.
Good deal again!
Greenlanders have been playing the independence card for long time.
They want to be independent, but they clearly cannot.
They need to be subsidized to keep their living standards and they need some protection since they cannot protect themselves.
They have no army or any other force to defend themselves, bunch of mercenaries would have easy job to take it over, if they had no NATO shield.
They seem now to realize that themselves.
The last election, they actually first time elected Democrat party to power (not related to US Dems), a party not too interested in independence.
Looks like, right now, they want to stay a part of Denmark!
stay a part of Denmark
______________
That’s basically OK, they are in NATO and US can use bases there.
Independent Greenland would be an easy target for any force, even just a bunch of dedicated military guys!
That may be what Trump is saying now but not what he said then:
Trump has repeatedly said that acquiring the island is essential for national security, blocking Russian or Chinese influence, and enabling a “Golden Dome” missile-defense system.
Trump is not going to "acquire" Greenland. The fundamental purpose of Trump's belligerence was to take over Greenland but he is not going to get that.
He could easily have had a "Golden Dome" missile-defense system at any time because the long-standing treaty provided for it, besides, the Danes were always fully accommodating and, in fact, remain eager to see American facilities in Greenland extended, including a Golden Dome.
All of the threats of invasion, all of the threats of punitive tariffs against those who opposed US annexation of Greenland were abandoned in a public, humiliating climbdown by Trump at Davos.
Minutes after viewing Trump's climbdown, I posted a plea for cooling off, permitting Trump to save face, and saving the Atlantic defense architecture:
Now is the time for Trump to claim all of the prerogatives that have always been available to him under the existing treaty that afford America the broadest possible scope of action in Greenland.
Equally, this is the time for Denmark, and NATO generally, to accommodate every build-out the US wants to make in Greenland for the defense of the United States, Canada, Denmark and the rest of NATO. In other words, give Trump what he wants, short of ownership, which he was always entitled to, thus permitting Trump to save face, even as we Freepers always believed it could and would be resolved.
Let's give Trump space to actually live up to his promise made in this speech promising he would be there and the US would be there to defend the nations of NATO when needed. We might yet be able to celebrate this fiasco as a win-win for America and Europe and for the survival of NATO. ( https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4363256/posts?page=62#62)
That was classic Trump "Art of the Deal". Ask for the world then bargain down until you get what you originally wanted and the other side is happy too.
I said from the very beginning that all this talk about military action was nothing more than Trump trolling the media.
IIRC, he said that the USA would take pieces of Greenland. I don’t understand how that’s going to work. Take it all, or take none. Will it look like a patchwork quilt when he’s done?
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