Just as the ‘real reason’ for President Trump resorting to economic blackmail to get control of Greenland has been leaked, Portugal’s government is calling for a “united and very strong response”.
Talking in Brussels, finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento has said ahead of meetings through the week that Europe’s response to Mr Trump “must be a united and very strong response because there are lines that cannot be crossed, and the sovereignty of states is one of them.”
Meantime, the UK Telegraph is carrying the story: “Taking Greenland is revenge for losing Nobel Peace Prize”.
The paper’s Berlin correspondent James Rothwell explains: “First, we were told it was about security. Then, there were suspicions that the real reason was raw minerals. Now, amid NATO’s worst internal crisis in its 76-year history, what appears to be the real reason behind Donald Trump’s desire for Greenland is revealed.
“In an astonishing screed to the prime minister of Norway, president Trump has explained that he will be taking over Greenland because he was snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight Wars PLUS,” Trump wrote, “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.”
This information will no doubt already be well-known to European leaders. President Trump’s letter published in full by the Telegraph, goes on to say: “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
On the subject of NATO, it too may no longer be secure in spite of the man who believes he has done more for it “than any other person since its founding” – thus European leaders are considering their ‘next move’ very seriously.
Said Miranda Sarmento: “We will discuss this today and tomorrow (at the Eurogroup meeting today and the Ecofin meeting on Tuesday) and there is a European Council meeting on Thursday.”
The minister declined to specify possible approaches, saying only that “there are several instruments on the table”, one of which is an anti-coercion instrument, with countermeasures amounting to €93 billion.
“We are not going to anticipate solutions, but it is not possible to accept that, especially for a country that is an ally of Europe in NATO, a country that has had the largest trade relations with Europe worldwide, can call into question the sovereignty of part of a Member State (…) Portugal will always be on the side of compromise, majority solutions and the defence of Europe”, he added.
When asked about the possible impact of the US plan for escalating tariffs, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said that Portugal has a “more comfortable and robust position to accommodate any negative external shocks that may arise” (referring, presumably, to his department’s budget surplus).
An extraordinary European summit is scheduled for Thursday as a result of President Trump’s tariff announcement last Saturday – targeting the eight European countries that have sent troops to Greenland as a result of current tensions.
As for the anti-coercion instrument, this harks back to events a year ago when Donald Trump took office for a second term in the White House. He imposed swingeing tariffs on several countries, but these were later removed through a trade agreement signed by Brussels and Washington, providing for a maximum limit of 15%.
That agreement however has still not been signed by Europe – and before it was reached, Brussels had outlined a package of retaliatory tariffs, worth €93 billion, on the United States, which is frozen until February. This is the instrument that Miranda Sarmento is referring to: it could simply be ‘unfrozen’ if President Trump’s latest threats materialise.
Source material: LUSA/ Telegraph
