PARIS – President-elect Donald Trump has tossed expansionist rhetoric at U.S. allies and potential adversaries with arguments that the frontiers of American energy have to be prolonged into Canada and the Danish territory of Greenland, and southward to incorporate the Panama Canal.
Trump’s strategies that worldwide borders will be redrawn — by force if necessary — are significantly inflammatory in Europe. His phrases run opposite to the argument European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are attempting to impress on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However many European leaders — who’ve discovered to anticipate the surprising from Trump and have seen that actions do not all the time comply with his phrases — have been measured of their response, with some taking a nothing-to-see-here view moderately than vigorously defend European Union member Denmark.
Analysts, although, say that even phrases can harm U.S.-European relations forward of Trump’s second presidency.
A diplomatic response in Europe
A number of officers in Europe — the place governments rely on U.S. commerce, vitality, funding, know-how, and protection cooperation for safety — emphasised their perception that Trump has no intention of marching troops into Greenland.
“I feel we will exclude that america within the coming years will attempt to use drive to annex territory that pursuits it,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed back — however rigorously, saying “borders should not be moved by drive” and never mentioning Trump by title.
This week, as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy pressed Trump’s incoming administration to proceed supporting Ukraine, he said: “It doesn’t matter what’s occurring on this planet, everybody desires to really feel positive that their nation won’t simply be erased off the map.”
Since Putin marched troops throughout Ukrainian borders in 2022, Zelenskyy and allies have been preventing — at great cost — to defend the precept that has underpinned the worldwide order since World Struggle II: that highly effective nations can’t merely gobble up others.
The British and French international ministers have stated they cannot foresee a U.S. invasion of Greenland. Nonetheless, French Overseas Minister Jean-Noël Barrot portrayed Trump’s remarks as a wake-up name.
“Do we expect we’re getting into right into a interval that sees the return of the legislation of the strongest?” the French minister said. “‘Sure.”
On Friday, the prime minister of Greenland — a semiautonomous Arctic territory that isn’t a part of the EU however whose 56,000 residents are EU residents, as a part of Denmark — said its people don’t need to be Individuals however that he’s open to better cooperation with the U.S.
“Cooperation is about dialogue,” chief Múte B. Egede stated.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen referred to as the U.S. “our closest ally” and stated: “Now we have to face collectively.”
Analysts discover Trump’s phrases troubling
European safety analysts agreed there’s no actual probability of Trump utilizing the navy in opposition to NATO ally Denmark, however however expressed profound disquiet.
Analysts warned of turbulence forward for trans-Atlantic ties, worldwide norms and the NATO navy alliance — not least due to the growing row with member Canada over Trump’s repeated strategies that it change into a U.S. state.
“There’s a risk, after all, that that is simply … a brand new sheriff on the town,” stated Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, who focuses on international coverage, Russia and Greenland on the Danish Institute for Worldwide Research. “I take some consolation from the truth that he’s now insisting that Canada ought to be included within the U.S., which means that it’s simply kind of political bravado.
“However harm has already been carried out. And I actually can not bear in mind a earlier incident like this the place an vital ally — on this case crucial ally — would threaten Denmark or one other NATO member state.”
Hansen stated he fears NATO could also be falling aside even earlier than Trump’s inauguration.
“I fear about our understanding of a collective West,” he stated. “What does this even imply now? What might this imply simply, say, one yr from now, two years from now, or not less than by the tip of this second Trump presidency? What will likely be left?”
Safety considerations as attainable motivation
Some diplomats and analysts see a typical thread in Trump’s eyeing of Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland: securing assets and waterways to strengthen the U.S. in opposition to potential adversaries.
Paris-based analyst Alix Frangeul-Alves stated Trump’s language is “all a part of his ‘Make America Nice Once more’ mode.”
In Greenland’s soils, she famous, are rare earths important for superior and inexperienced applied sciences. China dominates international provides of the dear minerals, which the U.S., Europe and different nations view as a safety threat.
“Any coverage made in Washington is made by way of the lens of the competitors with China,” stated Frangeul-Alves, who focuses on U.S. politics for the German Marshall Fund.
Some observers stated Trump’s advised strategies are fraught with peril.
Safety analyst Alexander Khara stated Trump’s declare that “we want Greenland for nationwide safety functions” reminded him of Putin’s feedback on Crimea when Russia seized the strategic Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Suggesting that borders is likely to be versatile is “a very harmful precedent,” stated Khara, director of the Centre for Protection Methods in Kyiv.
“We’re in a time of transition from the outdated system based mostly on norms and rules,” he stated, and “heading to extra conflicts, extra chaos and extra uncertainty.”
___
AP journalists Jill Lawless in London; Raf Casert in Brussels; Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; Geir Moulson and David Keyton in Berlin; and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
