Nato Chief Mark Rutte Bizarrely Says There Was No Trump U-Turn Over Greenland

Nato chief Mark Rutte has bizarrely claimed there was no U-turn from Donald Trump over Greenland, even after the US president’s spectacular climbdown over seizing the Arctic island.

Trump has spent much of January alarming his European and Nato allies by threatening to take Greenland by any means necessary.

He insisted the US needs to control the Danish territory to address his security concerns over Russia and China’s growing influence in the Arctic.

When fellow Nato allies flocked to Greenland’s defence, Trump threatened to slap 10% tariffs on any of their foreign goods.

But Trump suddenly revealed last night that he had struck a “framework for a future deal” with Rutte over Greenland and dropped his tariffs threat, although details around the agreement remain unclear.

And, to add the confusion, Rutte told Sky News on Thursday that Trump had not actually U-turned over Greenland at all.

“I don’t think there’s a U-turn,” the Nato chief said. “What I think is happening here is president Trump [during his first term] – had already started to focus European-Canadian allies on the Arctic – Greenland but also the wider Arctic – over the risk Russia and China would gain access.

“Then when he came back into office, he said, ‘Hey, it’s still not solved to a sufficient level,’ and he is right.

“So over the year, he and I had some discussions on this and yesterday, we discussed how can we now tackle this for once and for all?”

Rutte added: “It was clear for both of us that Nato needs to play a role here with several Arctic allies, and still when it comes to Greenland definitely.”

Asked about Trump’s demands for ownership over Greenland, the Nato chief said: “We didn’t discuss it. It didn’t come up last night.”

Talks between Denmark, Greenland and the US about the deal are ongoing, Trump told Fox News Business.

He said: “It’s really being negotiated now, the details of it.

“But essentially it’s total access – there’s no end, there’s no time limit.”

He added that he does not intend to pay anything regarding Greenland.

Nato’s supreme allied commander Europe, Alexus Grynkewich, also said there are currently no plans for a mission to the Arctic, though security will be increased.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters on Thursday morning: “I think you will have noticed that the last few days have been incredibly serious in relation to big things happening on the world stage.

“And you may have seen but it is a good thing that yesterday the threat of tariffs against the United Kingdom was lifted, and now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic, which may seem a long way away, pretty remote, but actually it does matter to all of us in terms of the safety and security of our country.

“And we’ve got through the last few days with a mix of British pragmatism, common sense, but also that British sense of sticking to our values and our principles.”

Meanwhile, The Telegraph reported that the US could mimic the arrangement the UK has with Cyprus by designating parts of Greenland sovereign base areas for America.

Officials, however, have refused to offer any firm confirmation about what the deal entails.

UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she hoped future talks would entail “the direct discussions that Denmark had asked for, for Denmark, Greenland and the United States on the way forward around Greenland, protecting Greenland’s sovereignty”.