While Donald Trump has dropped his threats to annex Greenland, for now, emergency EU meeting will go ahead to discuss volatile situation
EU leaders are gathering in Brussels to discuss the volatile “new normal” in transatlantic relations, after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump over Greenland that were suddenly dropped over a vague deal on Arctic security.
An emergency EU summit was hastily convened earlier this week after the US president announced he would impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations that defended Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark. Although Trump abandoned his tariff threat on Wednesday, EU officials said the summit remained necessary.
Trump’s decision to step back from tariffs “evidently changes a little the context of this European Council, but does not remove its interest,” said a European diplomat, who evoked shifting tectonic plates in the geopolitical order. In the context of “profound geopolitical movements” involving powers with great military and financial means “the Europeans must be capable of being sufficiently united and strong in defending their interests and defining their own path,” the person said.
Leaders were meeting in a context, said a senior EU official, “that was more positive than it was 24 hours ago to discuss how they understand this new reality”, citing “a new normal of this very important and structural relationship between Europe and the United States”.
