It's time for Washington to step up and grow a backbone

As the political heat builds around the chilly topic of Greenland and its pivotal role in Arctic security, a tetchy US-Europe relationship is being strained to breaking point. For what happens next, think of this Trump vs Europe brawl as a massive game of chicken.

- ANNE MCELVOY

Everyone in this scenario has something they are angsty about. Greenland’s security faces real threats from Russia and a Chinese push to invest heavily in the North Sea shipping channel, to cut sailing times between the Pacific and Atlantic by passing north of Russia as climate change melts the ice sheet. Greenland’s critical minerals are hotly sought after, which makes it a European concern moving to centre stage from the far northern sidelines.

The manner of Donald Trump’s lunge for control, and his declaration that he needs to “have Greenland”, is a sign of a fierce new era of the president’s expansionism busting apart the remnants of the ragged “rules-based order” that prohibits states from simply making a territorial lurch at countries they deem strategically important — in this case, declaring that Denmark, which administers Greenland’s security and foreign policy, should cede control of the island to the US on a “might equals right” basis that inevitably favours America.

Add to that anxiety about the impact of a threatened new round of tariffs on the UK and Europe as revenge for standing up to the US over Greenland, and the question, as an American president in pugnacious mood and core members of his administration descend in full security pomp on the World Economic Forum at Davos, is: which chicken blinks first? It is a crowded coop, for sure.

On the UK side, Keir Starmer is right to say that talking about cancelling the King’s visit to the US is an unwise retaliation idea — it drags the royals into the political dirt fight and is hardly likely to soften Trump’s heart in terms of dropping an extra tariff threat towards Britain. The decision to join Nato and much of Europe in pushing back against the US idea of a “total and complete” purchase of Greenland has already cooled relations.