Greenland crisis shows time for flattering Trump is over, former NATO boss says
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Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is proposing a three-point plan to defuse the crisis over Greenland.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BRUSSELS – The time for flattering US President Donald Trump is over, and Europe should hit back hard economically if the US imposes tariffs on NATO allies
Mr Rasmussen said Mr Trump’s insistence that Greenland – a semi-autonomous Danish territory – should become part of the United States represented the biggest challenge to NATO since its establishment in 1949.
“It’s really the future of NATO that is at stake,” said Mr Rasmussen, who offers a unique perspective on the crisis as a former leader of both Denmark – from 2001 to 2009 – and NATO, where he served as secretary-general from 2009 to 2014.
“The time for flattering is over. It doesn’t work. The fact is Mr Trump only respects force and strength – and unity. That’s exactly what Europe should demonstrate right now,” he told Reuters from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Rasmussen said he was not criticising leaders such as current NATO boss Mark Rutte, who has lavished praise on Mr Trump. But he said it was time for a new approach from Europe.
He said the European Union’s Anti-Coercion Instrument – the so-called bazooka that confers broad powers to retaliate against economic pressure – should be on the table after Mr Trump threatened tariffs on eight European nations unless the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
Mr Trump says US ownership of Greenland is vital for national security
He told Norway’s prime minister on Jan 18, in an exchange of text messages, he had “done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States”.
Mr Rasmussen proposed a three-point plan to defuse the crisis. It includes an update of a 1951 agreement between the US and Denmark that allows US forces and military bases on Greenland to include a strengthened NATO presence there.
It also includes an investment pact to help US and European firms extract minerals in Greenland and “a stabilisation and resilience compact” to prevent Chinese and Russian investments in critical sectors there, he said.
Mr Rasmussen said he had not presented the plan to Danish or other government officials but would discuss it with delegates in Davos.
“I hope that an infusion of something concrete could bring this whole discussion into a more constructive phase,” he said. REUTERS
