"On Wednesday, after a meeting with Nato's secretary general, Mark Rutte, the US president, Donald Trump, backtracked on his threats to slap tariffs on countries that got in the way of his annexation project. As European leaders huddled together over dinner for a post-crisis debrief in Brussels on 22 January, they congratulated themselves on their unity and appreciated the intervention of Rutte, or Daddy diplomacy."
"Rutte is well versed in dealing with Trump. It is likely that their conversation pushed the right buttons, offering him an offramp for his psychologically important need for Greenland. Earlier diplomatic talks between American, Danish and Greenlandic representatives addressing the reasons behind the US wish to annex Greenland national security, the mineral resources under its land mass and its quick access to space had not made the breakthrough."
The United States threatened to annex Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, creating a sharp transatlantic crisis and conflict risks within NATO. After a meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, President Donald Trump backtracked on threatened tariffs tied to the annexation. US motivations included national security, mineral resources under Greenland's land mass and strategic access to space. A negotiated framework included bans on Chinese mining exploration and an offer of a US base for the Golden Dome project. The decisive pressure came from the prospect of $93bn in retaliatory measures that unsettled markets. European leaders remained divided about deploying economic retaliation and the EU's capacity to activate new measures was uncertain.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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