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U.S. President Donald Trump linked his aggressive\u00a0stance on Greenland\u00a0to last year\u2019s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norway\u2019s prime minister that he no longer felt \u201can obligation to think purely of Peace,\u201d two European officials said Monday.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s message to Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. On Saturday, Trump\u00a0announced a 10% import tax\u00a0starting in February on goods from eight nations that have rallied around Denmark and Greenland, including Norway.<\/p>\n
Those countries issued a\u00a0forceful rebuke. But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to de-escalate tensions on Monday. While the White House has not ruled taking control of the strategic Arctic island by force, Starmer said he did not believe military action would occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this can be resolved and should be resolved through calm discussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, the American leader\u2019s message to Gahr St\u00f8re could\u00a0further fracture a U.S.-European relationship\u00a0already strained by differences over how to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, previous rounds of tariffs, military spending and migration policy.<\/p>\n
In a sign of how tensions have increased in recent days,\u00a0thousands of Greenlanders\u00a0marched over the weekend in protest of any effort to take over their island. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Monday that the tariff threats would not change the their stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not be pressured,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland\u2019s minister for business, minerals, energy, justice and equality, told The Associated Press that she was moved by the quick response of allies to the tariff threat and said it showed that countries realize \u201cthis is about more than Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of countries are afraid that if they let Greenland go, what would be next?\u201d<\/p>\n
According to two European officials, Trump\u2019s message to Gahr St\u00f8re read in part: \u201cConsidering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
It concluded: \u201cThe World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it had been forwarded to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. PBS first reported on the content of Trump\u2019s note.<\/p>\n
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the president\u2019s approach in Greenland during a brief Q&A with reporters in Davos, Switzerland, which is hosting the World Economic Forum meeting this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a complete canard that the president would be doing this because of the Nobel,\u201d Bessent said, immediately after saying he did not \u201cknow anything about the president\u2019s letter to Norway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bessent insisted Trump \u201cis looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States,\u201d adding that \u201cwe are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not respond to questions about the message or the context for Trump sending it.<\/p>\n
Gahr St\u00f8re confirmed Monday that he had received a text message the day before from Trump but did not release its contents.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian leader said Trump\u2019s message was a reply to an earlier missive sent on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in which they conveyed their opposition to the tariff announcement, pointed to a need to de-escalate, and proposed a telephone conversation among the three leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorway\u2019s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter,\u201d the Norwegian leader said in a statement. \u201cAs regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told TV2 Norway that he hadn\u2019t responded to the message, but \u201cI still believe it\u2019s wise to talk,\u201d and he hopes to talk with Trump in Davos this week.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is an independent body whose five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.<\/p>\n
Trump has openly coveted the peace prize, which the\u00a0committee awarded\u00a0to Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado last year. Last week, Machado\u00a0presented her Nobel medal\u00a0to Trump, who said he planned to keep it though the committee said the prize\u00a0can\u2019t be revoked, transferred or shared\u00a0with others.<\/p>\n
In his latest threat of tariffs, Trump indicated they would be retaliation for last week\u2019s deployment of symbolic numbers of\u00a0troops from the European countries\u00a0to Greenland \u2014 though he also suggested that he was using the tariffs as leverage to negotiate with Denmark.<\/p>\n
European governments said that the troops traveled to the island to assess Arctic security, part of a response to Trump\u2019s own concerns\u00a0about interference from Russia and China.<\/p>\n
Starmer on Monday called Trump\u2019s threat of tariffs \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d and said that a trade war is in no one\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201cbeing pragmatic does not mean being passive and partnership does not mean abandoning principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six of the eight countries targeted are part of the 27-member European Union, which operates as a single economic zone in terms of trade. European Council President Antonio Costa said Sunday that the bloc\u2019s leaders expressed \u201creadiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion.\u201d He announced a summit for Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
Starmer indicated that Britain, which is not part of the EU, is not planning to consider retaliatory tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus is on making sure we don\u2019t get to that stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s defense minister and Greenland\u2019s foreign minister are expected to meet NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Monday, a meeting that was planned before the latest escalation.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida; Emma Burrows in Nuuk, Greenland; and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #Greenland #rejected #Nobel #Peace #Prize #year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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