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EU Leaders to Hold Emergency Summit on Transatlantic Tensions Over Trump’s Greenland Push

Leaders of all 27 European Union member states will meet in Brussels on Thursday for an extraordinary summit to address growing strains in transatlantic relations triggered by President Donald Trump’s renewed effort to acquire Greenland.

A statement posted on the European Council’s website said the leaders “will discuss recent developments in transatlantic relations and their implications for the EU, and coordinate on the way forward.”

The meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, follows weeks of rising tensions between the United States and its European allies over Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump has repeatedly stated, in both his first and current terms, that he wants the United States to acquire the mineral-rich Arctic island — a proposal consistently rejected by Danish and Greenlandic officials.

The dispute has dominated discussions at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Addressing the forum on Wednesday, Trump alternated between sharp warnings to NATO allies over Greenland and assurances that the United States would not use military force to take control of the territory.

Trump referred to Greenland as a “piece of ice” and portrayed his proposed acquisition as compensation for decades of U.S. contributions to NATO and European security. During his remarks, he mistakenly referred to Greenland as Iceland several times, though the White House later denied he had misspoken.

Following his speech, Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Later, the president posted on social media that a “framework of a future deal” on Greenland had been reached. He also said he would suspend plans to impose tariffs on eight NATO countries that recently deployed small troop contingents to Greenland for military exercises — a threat that had drawn sharp criticism from European leaders and raised fears of a transatlantic trade conflict.

Neither Trump nor Rutte provided details of any prospective agreement. Trump told CNN that the United States had secured “everything we wanted,” while Rutte told Fox News that Greenland’s sovereignty “did not come up” during their meeting.

A NATO spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that trilateral talks among the United States, Denmark and Greenland are ongoing.

 

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