Denmark Doubles Down After Trump U-Turn: "We Won't Negotiate Sovereignty"

U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt retreat from tariff threats and military rhetoric over Greenland has eased immediate pressure on Europe, yet Denmark has moved quickly to reassert an immovable boundary: sovereignty is not negotiable. The episode underscores a structural tension inside NATO, where security coordination increasingly collides with national constitutional limits.

On Wednesday, Trump said he had agreed with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security. The announcement came only hours after he withdrew threatened tariffs against eight European countries and ruled out using force to assert U.S. control over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark. The reversal followed days of escalation in which Trump had insisted he wanted the island “including right, title and ownership.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded on Thursday with a sharply defined statement. While calling Arctic security discussions within NATO “good and natural,” she stressed that Denmark’s position was unchanged. “Anything political can be negotiated on, including security, investment and economic issues. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.” She added, “I have been informed that this has not been the case,” rejecting the suggestion that any sovereignty-related framework had been agreed.

“That Issue Did Not Come Up”

NATO’s leadership has sought to narrow the scope of Trump’s claims. Asked by Fox News whether Greenland would remain part of the Danish kingdom under the framework Trump announced, Rutte said that “that issue did not come up any more in my conversations tonight with the president.” He described the focus instead as strategic conditions in the High North.

“He’s very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect it,” Rutte said. “That was really the focus of our discussions.”

Trump, for his part, linked Greenland discussions to broader U.S. defense priorities. He said “additional discussions” were underway connected to the Golden Dome missile defense program, a multilayered system projected to cost $175 billion and designed to place U.S. weapons in space for the first time. He offered no timelines, basing details, or geographic scope.

Alliance Strategy, Not Territory

Rutte has framed the Greenland debate as a proxy for wider strategic competition, stressing that “all of this is not about Greenland or the Arctic,” but about “how can we protect ourselves against our adversaries.” He underscored that the main adversary is Russia, while cautioning that NATO also sees China “massively building up,” adding that allies should “not be naïve about China.”