Nato’s silence in response to Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland has prompted alarm among European capitals fearful that the alliance is failing to defend the rights of Denmark.
It has not issued a public statement asserting Denmark and Greenland’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, or responded to the US president’s stated ambition for the vast Arctic island that is part of the kingdom of Denmark.
That has raised the ire of European members trying to present a united front and ease transatlantic tensions, and stands in stark contrast to the EU’s recent efforts to rally around Copenhagen.
Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general who enjoys a warm relationship with Trump, has been unusually absent on such a critical security issue affecting his membership. Suggestions from Paris and other capitals for enhanced Nato activity in Greenland have not yet been taken up.
While European officials accept that the US’s central role in the military alliance limits its options to respond, many told the FT that its absence from the crisis risks enhancing the sense of Trump’s impunity in dealing with allies and exploiting Europe’s security dependency on Washington.
“Since we’re clearly talking about nations that are all Nato allies, Nato should initiate a serious debate on this . . . in order to reduce or ease the pressure on the issue,” said Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister. “The debate is a debate that must involve Nato.”
Trump has accused Denmark of failing to adequately protect the island and invest in its security despite what he claims is rising Russian and Chinese naval activity around it. The White House has said military action was “an option” alongside purchase or other methods of taking control.
That has posed an excruciating challenge for Nato and Rutte. A US invasion or annexation attempt would mean direct conflict between two allies, calling into question its Article 5 mutual defence clause that many members see as its raison d’être.
“They’re conspicuously silent,” said one EU official. “Rutte was supposed to be the man Europe could rely on to be our Trump-whisperer. But he wasn’t supposed to be this quiet.”
“Of course, it is difficult to discuss these things inside Nato,” said an alliance diplomat. “But if you don’t, it implies that we are all OK with what is going on.” Bakom betalvägg