LONDON — European NATO allies warned the United States on Tuesday that they would “not stop defending” the values of sovereignty and territorial integrity following President Donald Trump’s threats against the Danish island of Greenland.
Trump and his team have ramped up hostile suggestions that they want to seize Greenland, a vast Artic island of just 50,000 people that has mineral and strategic significance. The U.S. attack against Venezuela and capture of President Nicolas Maduro — which the United Nations said undermined international law — has raised fears that this might not be an empty threat.
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The European leaders were in Paris meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff and others, according to a White House official. It is the latest in frenzied rounds of shuttle diplomacy to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen Danish navy patrol vessel docked in Nuuk, Greenland, in Nov. 2025.Juliette Pavy / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Though these negotiations have accelerated since November, the U.S. attack on Venezuela and continued suggestions of seizing Greenland have cast a shadow over the talks, which are being held with the very allies who — under NATO’s principle of collective defense — Trump is suggesting attacking.
“The Kingdom of Denmark — including Greenland — is part of NATO,” the allies said in a joint statement.
“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them,” said the statement, issued by the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark.
It added that “the United States is an essential partner in this endeavor, as a NATO ally” and through a 1951 defense agreement allowing Washington to build military bases on the vast island. “Greenland belongs to its people,” it said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the statement added.
European allies backed Denmark and Greenland, whose leaders rebuked Trump.Emil Stach / AFP via Getty Images
One of the key elements being discussed in Paris is Ukraine and Europe’s desire for “security guarantees,” which could come in the form of a multinational force being deployed to Ukraine to ensure Russia does not launch further attacks.
Ukraine’s president called the meeting “a new opportunity to end this war,” in a statement Saturday.
And Macron had said Tuesday’s gathering of the so-called “coalition of the willing” would see the powers “make concrete commitments” to Ukraine’s security as part of any future peace deal with Russia.
Kyiv and its allies have consistently said that this would need to be backed by American military power. But Trump has indicated he may instead turn that might against a NATO ally, telling NBC News on Monday that he was “very serious” in his ambitions to take control of Greenland.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, took this a step further. He told CNN that “obviously Greenland should be part of the U.S.” because of what he described as the island’s geostrategic importance in helping Washington fulfill its role as “the power of NATO.”
“The real question is, what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?” he said. “Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over Greenland,” Miller added.
The issue of territory has remained a key obstacle in negotiations between Ukraine and the U.S.Lisi Niesner / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Any U.S. action against Greenland would be a dramatic and historic escalation, even when set against Trump’s past hostility toward Washington’s erstwhile European allies.
Denmark is a NATO partner, and dozens of its troops died fighting in U.S.-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many experts believe that U.S. military action to seize the territory would spell the end of the alliance and mark a new nadir for transatlantic ties that are already strained under Trump.
“It would de facto mean that NATO was dead because many European nations would simply say, ‘OK, we cannot rely on the Americans anymore,’” said Peter Viggo Jakobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said much the same Monday, telling her country’s TV2 broadcaster that “if the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops.”
Smoke rises over the ruins of a residential apartment building hit by a Russian missile on Friday, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.Mykyta Kuznetsov / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Even without the building panic over Greenland, it remains a colossal ask to bridge the chasm between Russia’s insistence on its hardline demands and the fears held by Ukraine and Europe that Vladimir Putin may use a deal as a launchpad to attack again.
Zelenskyy said that a peace deal is “90%” there, albeit suggesting that the final 10% contains the thorniest issues.
It is unclear whether Russia will ever accept any form of security guarantee, with Putin wavering little in his demand for Ukraine’s effective surrender.
