Morning opening: Greenland working group off to rocky start
Jakub Krupa
After meeting with the US vice-president JD Vance and state secretary Marco Rubio on Wednesday, the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers announced a new diplomatic channel to discuss their “fundamental” disagreements over Greenland: namely, a working group with the US.
Well, it turns out the White House does not see it exactly in the same way.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, claimed last night that the working group was actually established for the purpose of, erm, “technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland,” prompting an swift denial from Denmark’s foreign minister.
Responding to Danish broadcaster TV2, Lars Løkke Rasmussen reiterated Denmark’s red lines on territory, and hinted that if the US comes to the table with that mindset, it will be “a very, very short series of meetings.”
Oh, well. Off to a great start.
In the meantime, a group of US parliamentarians is visiting Copenhagen today for talks with senior Danish and Greenlandic officials, including Rasmussen.
As they come to the Folketing for their meetings, the US delegation will no doubt notice a Greenlandic flag flying above the building. It’s probably safe to say that they should expect Leavitt’s comments to come up as a topic for discussion.
I will bring you the latest on Greenland here, but also on Ukraine and other news across the continent.
It’s Friday, 16 January 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Trump’s Greenland comments act as distraction from his woes in US, senator says
US Democratic senator Shaheen also has this theory on why Trump turned his attention to Greenland:
“A part of me is not sure how much of this is a distraction, to try and take the attention of the American people away from some very real issues that we have in the United States right now.
The cost of living is a real concern for Americans [and] Donald Trump got elected saying he was going to address the cost of living.
He was going to address domestic issues, he was going to end forever wars, and he’s not done any of that, so people are frustrated with him.
Also, as you may have followed the Epstein files, the paedophile in the US, it’s been quite an issue, particularly in the Republican Party and among Donald Trump’s followers.
And you know, Trump is a master of having a problem over here and saying, ‘Oh no, don’t pay attention to this problem. Look over here at this shiny object that I want people to focus on’.
And so I don’t know, who knows what [he thinks], it’s hard to know what Donald Trump’s real motivation is, but I do think there is some of that going on in terms of the focus on Greenland.”
Trump watches US polls and Americans oppose use of force in Greenland, senator says
Shaheen then strikes a slightly more optimistic tone as she says:
“I believe saner heads will prevail.
I believe that because we have institutions that are acting in the United States, on both sides of the aisle in Congress, there is overwhelming support for our relationship for Nato and among the American people.
I don’t know if you all saw the recent poll that showed that 86% of Americans said they would oppose the use of military force in Greenland. And while the President doesn’t listen much to Democrats in Congress, he does watch the polls in the United States.”
She says that is particularly important given it’s an election year in the US, with the poll “acting as a disincentive for members of Congress” to back Trump on Greenland.
“The conventional wisdom – knock on wood as a Democrat – is that Congress is going to flip to Democratic hands, and that that will have a check on what the President does,” she says.
But she more broadly warns against “the idea of a world where we have no alliances, where we have abrogated the international world order” as she says it would be “not safe.”
“It’s not safe for Americans. It’s not safe for Danes and the only people who benefit from that sort of world are the autocrats in Moscow and Beijing and other autocrats around the world.”
Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland does ‘real damage’ to alliances, US national security and benefits Russia’s Putin, US senator says
Senator Shaheen goes further as she says that “just the suggestion that the US would take Greenland by force does real damage, not just to the relationship with Greenland with Denmark, but to America’s own national security.”
She adds Trump’s comments “erode decades of hard won confidence among allies, and it weakens the sense of security that comes with it, and that rhetoric plays right into the hands of our greatest adversaries, Russia and China.”
“Vladimir Putin would welcome any move that fractures Nato or diverts attention and resources away from Ukraine,” she says.
She adds:
“If we’re serious about limiting Russia’s influence in the Arctic and beyond, the most effective way to do that is by defeating Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, and that’s precisely why the current debate over Greenland makes so little sense.”
She adds that when she met with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, this morning, they noted that “if the United States wants to do certain things in Greenland, whether it’s build more military bases, develop the critical minerals that are there, all we have to do is partner with you.”
‘Millions of Americans deeply concerned’ about Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland, senior Democrat senator says
US senator Jeanne Shaheen, a senior Democratic member of the US delegation meeting with Danish and Greenlandic officials today, is speaking at the Copenhagen University now.
Shaheen, who sits on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations stresses:
“All of the senators who are here are strongly supportive of the Danish-American relationship and the Nato alliance.”
She adds:
“I’m here today because millions of Americans are deeply concerned about the recent rhetoric of the United States taking over Greenland, either buying it or using military force.
And I think that that rhetoric doesn’t just undermine our relationship both with Denmark and with Greenland, but also with other Nato countries and with Europe; it undermines Nato at a time when our adversaries seek to benefit from division.”
She then repeatedly praises US-Danish relations and links through history.
France warns any US Greenland move could endanger trade relationship with EU
Lisa O’Carroll
France has warned the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent that taking Greenland would be “crossing the line” and could endanger the trade relationship with the EU.
In an interview with the FT (£), the country’s finance minister Roland Lescure was asked if the EU would hit back with retaliatory trade sanctions if Donald Trump were to invade Greenland.
He said:
“Obviously, if that happened we would be in a totally new world for sure, and we would have to adapt accordingly.”
The EU using all its diplomatic powers to try and persuade Trump of the dangers of his ambition on Greenland, with Lescure underlining the importance of remaining in dialogue with the US despite their many differences including tariffs on steel and clashes on tech regulation,
“When we disagree, it’s always better to stay engaged, and that’s what we are doing. The dialogue has to keep on going as long as lines that shouldn’t be crossed are not crossed,” he said, noting the US and France had been close allies for 250 years.
The minister told the FT that Bessent, who he met on Monday in Washington, told him that the US “do not like fines”, a reference to the recent €120m fine on Elon Musk’s X.
“I told him that we would apply European laws to any companies that do business in Europe,” he said.
He described the relationship between the US and Europe as a “paradox”, sometimes acting as an ally and sometimes an adversary.
Russia says Greenland is Danish as it laments ‘extraordinary’ clash over territory
Meanwhile, Denmark has received somewhat unexpected backing from Russia, as the Kremlin said that it considers Greenland to be Danish territory and added that the security situation surrounding the island was “extraordinary” from the perspective of international law, Reuters reported.
The agency noted that Moscow said earlier this week that it was unacceptable for the west to keep claiming that Russia and China threatened Greenland, and said that the crisis over the territory showed the double standards of western powers which claimed moral superiority.
Earlier today, however, Russia’s Kirill Dmitriev – Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation – joked about Greenland becoming the 51st state of the US.
Bulgaria faces snap election after leading parties refuse mandate to form government
Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s president Rumen Radev said the country will hold a snap election after leading parties refused a mandate to form a government, Reuters reported.
The latest development comes a month on from the collapse of the previous government amid public frustration with economic policies and perceived failure to tackle corruption, and just two weeks after Bulgaria joined the eurozone.
Lithuania blames Russian military intelligence for 2024 attempted arson attack
The Lithuanian authorities just announced that Russia’s military intelligence GRU was responsible for an attempted arson attack in 2024 on a plant that supplies radio wave scanners to Ukraine’s army, Reuters reported.
Six nationals of Spain, Colombia, Cuba, Russia and Belarus have been charged over the attempted attack, with investigators still looking for three more people, believed to be in Russia.
The prosecutors believe that the group also attempted arson attacks in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania.
“The crimes were coordinated, and orders were issued to the executors by a group of people living in Russia, who are connected with Russia’s GRU,” deputy chief Saulius Briginas of Lithuania’s criminal police told reporters.
Morning opening: Greenland working group off to rocky start
Jakub Krupa
After meeting with the US vice-president JD Vance and state secretary Marco Rubio on Wednesday, the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers announced a new diplomatic channel to discuss their “fundamental” disagreements over Greenland: namely, a working group with the US.
Well, it turns out the White House does not see it exactly in the same way.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, claimed last night that the working group was actually established for the purpose of, erm, “technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland,” prompting an swift denial from Denmark’s foreign minister.
Responding to Danish broadcaster TV2, Lars Løkke Rasmussen reiterated Denmark’s red lines on territory, and hinted that if the US comes to the table with that mindset, it will be “a very, very short series of meetings.”
Oh, well. Off to a great start.
In the meantime, a group of US parliamentarians is visiting Copenhagen today for talks with senior Danish and Greenlandic officials, including Rasmussen.
As they come to the Folketing for their meetings, the US delegation will no doubt notice a Greenlandic flag flying above the building. It’s probably safe to say that they should expect Leavitt’s comments to come up as a topic for discussion.
I will bring you the latest on Greenland here, but also on Ukraine and other news across the continent.
It’s Friday, 16 January 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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