European leaders vowed Monday not to be blackmailed by the United States, promising a strong response to President Donald Trump as his intensifying pressure campaign to seize the Danish territory of Greenland sent transatlantic tensions spiraling.
Trump took his hostile mission to obtain the large Arctic island to new levels this weekend, saying he would implement a wave of increasing tariffs on imports from some European powers opposed to an American takeover of the territory, including key postwar allies Britain, France and Germany.
“Germany and France agree: We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at his ministry. “Blackmail between allies of 250 years, blackmail between friends, is obviously unacceptable,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said at the same event.
“We Europeans must make it clear: The limit has been reached,” Klingbeil said.
Their comments came as officials on the continent weighed how to counter Trump’s tariff threat, ahead of an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday.
In the short term, European governments are considering a range of options including their own tariffs. Another is the European Union’s “bazooka” — officially known as the Anti-Coercion Instrument, which has never been used before.
This allows E.U. countries to take retaliatory action against any rivals seen as threatening the bloc, and could involve restricting American access to tenders or investment proposals.
Trump’s pursuit of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has stunned many across Europe, a previously unthinkable verbal, economic and even military threat against his own NATO allies.
Some geopolitical and historical experts believe this has now become the lowest ebb of transatlantic relations since the Suez Crisis of 1956, when the U.S. pressured Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from their invasion of Egypt.
The president’s attempted land-grab has also baffled experts, as the U.S. has huge leeway to establish military bases on Greenland or strike deals to mine its resources.
The president says that he wants Greenland to counter what he calls a growing threat from Russia and China. Though he has personally denied it, some of his team say the Arctic island’s mineral resources are also a motiving factor.
Trump said late Sunday that “Denmark has been unable to do anything about” the Russian threat. “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!” in a post on Truth Social.
While Europe was reeling, Russia appeared Monday to be less aghast at Trump’s ambitions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Trump would “go down in history” if he was successful.
“There are some experts who say that Trump will go down in history if he solves the Greenland question. Without saying whether it’s good or bad — one can hardly disagree with these experts,” Peskov said.