Davos: NATO Secretary General revealed that the US leader did not discuss with him the possibility of using force to seize Greenland, but instead focused on protecting the Arctic region from China and Russia.
According to Thai News Agency, after US President Donald Trump reversed course on using force to seize Greenland from Denmark, he announced a framework agreement regarding Greenland with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during a meeting at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting was held with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. However, both Greenland and Denmark were unaware of any such agreement that Trump claimed.
Later, Mr. Rutte gave an exclusive interview to Fox News in the United States about the framework agreement details. He stated that Mr. Trump did not discuss using force to seize Greenland with him. Instead, Trump emphasized the need to protect the changing Arctic region due to the increasing role of China and Russia. Rutte agreed with the US leader's idea of increasing security in the Arctic, as there is a growing likelihood that China and Russia will become a threat in the region.
The NATO Secretary General also praised Mr. Trump for encouraging other NATO member countries to increase their defense contributions to NATO to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), from the current requirement of at least 2 percent of GDP. NATO has 32 member countries, up from 12 when it was founded in 1949. Finland and Sweden joined in 2023 and 2024, respectively, as a reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Regarding the changing direction of relations between some NATO member states and China and Russia, the NATO Secretary-General stated that he could not comment on the decisions of individual countries. However, he reiterated that NATO maintains its stance that it should not be naive about the military movements of China and Russia.