US President Donald Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos on 21 January that he will not use military force to acquire Greenland from Denmark, marking the first time he has explicitly ruled out such action after weeks of leaving the option open.
"I won't do that," Trump said during his address. "That's probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force."
Russia's tacit blessing of Trump's Greenland ambitions casts a shadow over NATO unity. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov compared Trump's bid to Russia's seizure of Crimea at his annual press conference on 20 January: "Crimea is no less important for the security of the Russian Federation than Greenland is for the United States," Izvestia reported. Lavrov also mocked Western calls for Greenland's self-determination, saying politicians should "remember what they said about the right to self-determination of the people of Crimea, Donbas and Novorossiya."
What we know about the 'framework'
Following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the forum, Trump announced on Facebook that they "formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region."
The key components, according to Axios:
Tariff withdrawal: Trump immediately scrapped planned 10% tariffs on eight European nations—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland.
Military presence: The agreement focuses on renegotiating the 1951 Defense Agreement to expand the US military footprint, potentially including new missile defense bases for Trump's "Golden Dome" project.
Resource extraction: Trump stated the framework involves US-European collaboration on mineral extraction in Greenland.
Trump designated Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to lead negotiations.
Denmark pushes back
During his Davos speech, Trump insisted the US needs "right, title, and ownership" of Greenland. "You can't defend it on a lease," he said. "Who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease, which is a large piece of ice in the middle of the ocean?"
Yet crucial ambiguities persist. In an interview with CNBC's Joe Kernen minutes after posting the statement, Trump described the Greenland framework as a "concept of a deal," CNBC reported.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen welcomed the removal of tariff threats but warned that the US president still "has an ambition we can't accommodate," The Irish Times reported.
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Danish MP Sascha Faxe was among those angered by Greenland's exclusion from Wednesday's negotiations. "It's not real negotiations; it's two men who have had a conversation," she told Sky News. "There can't be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations."
Moscow watches with "glee"
Russian officials responded with what ABC News characterized as "a mixture of glee, gloating and wariness." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that if Trump takes Greenland, "he will go down in history, and not only the US history but world history."
"Without discussing whether it's good or bad, it's hard not to agree," Peskov added.
The government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta compared potential annexation to Lincoln's abolition of slavery and Napoleon's territorial conquests.
Lavrov declared Trump's bid heralds a "deep crisis" for NATO and raises questions about the alliance's preservation. Russian state media openly celebrated: "Transatlantic unity is over," wrote Kirill Dmitriev, a presidential envoy involved in talks on ending the Ukraine war.
