Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Jan. 21 that the issue of Greenland remaining part of Denmark did not come up during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Rutte, in an interview with Fox News, was asked about Greenland’s sovereignty under a proposed framework Trump mentioned earlier in the day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations,” Rutte said. “[Trump] is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region—where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active—how we can protect it.”
Rutte told the crowd at the World Economic Forum that Trump was accurate about Chinese and Russian aggression in the region.
“When it comes to the Arctic, I think President Trump is right. Other leaders in NATO are right. We need to defend the Arctic,” Rutte, who previously served as the Dutch prime minister, said.
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart, in a Jan. 21 statement to The Epoch Times, said that discussions would focus on “ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of Allies, especially the seven Arctic Allies.”
Trump announced he had formed the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland and the broader Arctic region following his meeting with Rutte.
The president had threatened 10 percent tariffs on eight European NATO members—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland—opposing U.S. acquisition, set to take effect on Feb. 1.
He pulled back on that threat after signaling progress.
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 21 post on Truth Social. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.”
Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark since 2009 with about 56,000 residents, hosts a U.S. air base and is rich in critical minerals. Trump has repeatedly said that acquiring the island is essential for national security, blocking Russian or Chinese influence, and enabling a “Golden Dome” missile-defense system.
Negotiations on Greenland have included U.S. Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. Recent meetings included Danish and Greenlandic officials and U.S. counterparts on Jan. 14, and a congressional delegation to Denmark on Jan. 17.
Putin, addressing the Greenland issue for the first time in public, signaled on Jan. 21 that Russia would not object to the United States acquiring Greenland and said it was an issue for Denmark and the United States.
“What happens in Greenland is of no concern to us whatsoever,” Putin told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “Incidentally, Denmark has always treated Greenland as a colony and has been quite harsh, if not cruel, towards it. But that is a different matter altogether, and hardly anyone is interested in it now.”
Travis Gilmore and Reuters contributed to this report.
