Denmark rejects Trump's Greenland demand at tense NATO summit

Denmark publicly rejected Donald Trump's call for US control of Greenland at the NATO summit in Ankara. The clash exposed wider strains in the alliance over sovereignty, Iran and defence burdens.

In Short

• Frederiksen urged allies to respect Greenlanders' self-determination, sovereignty and territorial integrity
• Rutte backed US strikes on Iran, calling Washington's response necessary
• Alliance leaders faced renewed pressure to raise defence spending towards targets

At a NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, Denmark rejected US President Donald Trump's renewed demand that the United States should take control of Greenland, as alliance leaders also dealt with US strikes on Iran, pressure over defence spending and Ukraine's push to join NATO.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Greenland was not for sale and urged allies to respect self-determination and sovereignty. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, meanwhile, backed the latest US action against Iran and said Washington's demand for higher defence spending by allies was fair. The meeting also comes amid renewed questions over the US military role in Europe and ahead of talks involving Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Frederiksen said, "Greenland is of course not for sale." She added, "We hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenland people's right for self-determination," and said, "We are sovereign states and we need everybody to respect our territorial integrity and our sovereignty." Trump revived the issue on the eve of the summit by saying the United States should control the semiautonomous island, even though NATO is built on the principle that its 32 members will defend one another's territory, not threaten to seize it.

Frederiksen said Denmark was "ready to defend every inch of NATO including our own territory" in the event of an attack, and said it would rely on allies to honour their commitment to defend one another. Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir said Greenland "belongs to the people of Greenland" and called for unity within the alliance. "We have threats coming from outside the alliance," Frostadottir said. "Russia is their biggest threat when it comes to these NATO allies. We need to focus on us and how we stick together."

From Ankara, Rutte said he believed the United States remained fully committed to NATO and supported Trump's decision to strike Iran overnight. "I think it was absolutely necessary because when you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating a ceasefire, we see what happened yesterday," Rutte said, referring to the US strikes after Tehran hit three merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. "I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react," he said.

The US strikes on Iran, along with the revoking of a licence that allowed it to sell oil on global markets, were described as retaliation and highlighted the fragility of an interim deal aimed at ending months of fighting between the two countries. Trump launched the attacks shortly after leaving a dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and had not spoken publicly about them so far. It is unusual for US presidents to order military action while outside the country, though former President Barack Obama authorised strikes in Libya during a trip to Brazil in 2011.

The summit in Ankara was meant to focus on how far allies had moved towards NATO spending targets. Rutte said US demands for all allies to spend the same share of gross domestic product were "completely fair" and noted that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark and Greece were already spending more. "The commitment is there, no doubt," Rutte said, while adding that the Trump administration expects "the Europeans and Canadian will equalize their spending with the United States."

NATO leaders were also trying to show Trump that they were raising defence spending. Rutte had travelled to Washington last month to praise the "Trump Trillion" - the USD 1.2 trillion that European allies and Canada have added to defence spending since Trump came to power in 2017. But Trump has demanded "loyalty" and called NATO a "paper tiger" after some allies refused to allow open access to their bases for US forces to attack Iran. As leaders arrived in Ankara, Rutte hosted what was described as a "big reveal" event to present the deals linked to higher spending, much of which would go to US companies and create thousands of jobs in the US.

Trump has long argued that the US carries more than its share of NATO's defence burden. At last year's summit, allies agreed to aim for spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence, with 3.5 per cent for defence budgets and 1.5 per cent for roads, bridges and ports to help troops and equipment move faster in wartime. New NATO figures released on Tuesday showed that Slovenia, Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic could face pressure from the Trump administration as they struggle to meet the alliance's earlier 2 per cent target. The administration wants what it calls a more lean and lethal "NATO 3.0", with Europe taking responsibility for its own security, including Ukraine, while the US continues to provide its nuclear umbrella. At the same time, the Pentagon has begun a six-month review of the US military presence in Europe, leaving allies looking for clarity on how far Trump may cut troop numbers. Any drawdown could depend on how quickly European allies raise spending and whether they allow wider use of their bases.

Zelenskyy made a fresh appeal on Tuesday for Ukraine to be allowed into NATO, saying Ukraine's armed forces are highly experienced and would strengthen the alliance's defences. He was expected to meet Trump in Ankara on Wednesday and pointed to Ukraine's ability to adapt, strike deep inside Russia and hit oil refineries and other energy targets. He said Ukrainian forces are "eliminating" an average of 30,000 Russian troops each month. Concerns have also grown among some northern, central and eastern European countries that Russia could be preparing a hybrid attack involving conventional military action and tactics such as cyberattacks.

Trump is also due to meet Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former insurgent who led the offensive that removed Bashar Assad in December 2024. The report said al-Sharaa, despite once being an al-Qaida fighter, has won Trump's backing as he seeks to rebuild Syria and repair ties with the West. Trump has repeatedly said al-Sharaa would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah in Lebanon than the Israeli army, prompting concern in Lebanon and Israel, while the Syrian leader has said he has no interest in doing so. Overall, the summit brought together disputes over Greenland, the fallout from US action against Iran, pressure on allies to spend more on defence and fresh appeals from Ukraine as NATO tried to project unity.

With PTI Inputs

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