Donald Trump’s pivot from military intervention to a Nato-brokered compromise on Greenland has left European capitals struggling to work out whether the US president’s pressure campaign to take over the Arctic territory is over — and whether to trust his word at all.
Trump’s imperialistic rhetoric had prompted an emergency meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday to discuss how to respond to his desire to take over the Danish-controlled territory.
But the US president announced after a meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte on Wednesday evening that he had found a “solution”, and also rescinded his threat to impose tariffs on EU countries that opposed his ambition to annex the Arctic island.