Sovereignty over Greenland not discussed with Trump, says NATO chief

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that he had not discussed the key issue of Danish sovereignty over Greenland in his meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Rutte, speaking in a televised interview with Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” offered few details about the supposed “framework” for a deal announced by Trump after his talks with the NATO chief.

“We have a good agreement to really start working on these issues,” Rutte said, echoing comments earlier to AFP that much work remained to reach an actual deal.

“That means that we both agreed, when you look at NATO and what NATO collectively can do to make sure that the whole Arctic region is safe,” he said.

Asked if Greenland would remain a part of the Kingdom of Denmark under the deal, Rutte said: “That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations tonight with the president.”

“He’s very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect that,” he added. “That was really the focus our discussions.”

Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday earlier said he had reached a framework for a deal over Greenland following a meeting with the NATO boss and that he would therefore waive tariffs scheduled to hit European allies.

“We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The US president did not provide any details on the framework, but added that his threatened tariffs against European countries who were resisting his quest to acquire Greenland was now off the table.

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