US President Donald Trump said he had agreed to a meeting of “various parties” over Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos, after holding a “very good” telephone call with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.
On his Truth Social platform on Tuesday morning, Trump wrote: “I had a very good telephone call with Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of Nato, concerning Greenland.”
He added that he had “agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland”.
“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World security. There can be no going back,” he wrote.
Trump’s comments come amid escalating tensions between Europe and Washington over the US president’s threats to seize the vast Arctic island.
On Monday night, Denmark sent a “substantial contribution” of soldiers and the head of the country’s army to the autonomous territory, on top of the more than 200 troops already present there.
On Tuesday morning, Trump posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of himself, vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio in Greenland with an American flag and a sign reading: “US territory EST 2026.”
The US president’s threat to impose 10 per cent tariffs on European states over the has raised the spectre of a trade war with the continent, plunging the transatlantic relationship into crisis.
On Monday at Davos, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the EU’s ability to quickly agree a forceful response to Trump’s Greenland-related tariffs, predicting the bloc would likely form “the dreaded European working group” rather than take rapid action.
Trump on Tuesday attacked the UK’s plans to “give away the Island of Diego Garcia”, citing the deal signed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in May to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as “another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired”.
Trump also posted screenshots of text messages apparently from Emmanuel Macron, in which the French president said: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”
Macron also suggested convening a G7 meeting at Davos, to which he would invite Ukraine, Denmark, Syria and Russia.
