Closing summary
Beijing has urged the US to stop using the “so-called ‘China threat’” as a justification for imposing tariffs on European countries which have opposed Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland.
MPs in the UK’s House of Commons have called for a boycott of the World Cup this summer in response to Trump’s plans to annex Greenland.
Making tariff threats is “no way to treat allies”, the UK’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has said.
Denmark has proposed that Nato start surveillance operations in Greenland, with the support of the Arctic island. Nato chief Mark Rutte took note of this, Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.
In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Donald Trump declined to rule out seizing Greenland by force – “No comment,” he told the broadcaster – but insisted that he would “100%” push ahead with his plans to hit European nations with tariffs if he doesn’t get Greenland.
The US president’s comments come after he sent a letter to Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre telling him that “considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
Leaders across Europe have been weighing in on both the issue of Greenland and the threat of tariffs from the US, with some like Roland Lescure, France’s finance and economic minister, warning that Europe “has to step up” and respond to Trump’s tariff threats while Simon Harris, Ireland’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, called for “cool heads”.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, held a press conference criticising Trump’s punitive tariff plan as “completely wrong” and maintained that “any decision on Greenland belongs to people of Greenland and Denmark alone” – but stopped short of committing to any form of retaliation against US tariffs. Meanwhile, France’s Emmanuel Macron said no amount of intimidation would work, while the Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson warned the EU would not be “blackmailed” and the Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre warned that “threats have no place among allies”. German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the focus was on trying to talk Trump out of imposing tariffs over Greenland – but also said that it was important for European Nato allies to do more to safeguard the region.
EU leaders called for calm on all sides as they attempt to work among themselves – and with the White House – to avoid full-on trade war. European Commission’s trade spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters on Monday that leaders want to resolve the crisis through talks as soon as possible. But “should the threatened tariffs be imposed, the European Union has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond because we will do everything necessary to protect EU’s economic interests,” Gill added.
Thanks for following the blog with me, Donna Ferguson. Goodnight.
The German chancellor, Fredrich Merz, has said that Europe is “in a position to respond” to the threat of “inappropriate” US tariffs.
Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Merz said: “We do not want a trade dispute with the US, but if we are confronted with tariff that we consider inappropriate, then we are in a position to respond. And that is precisely what we will be discussing in Brussels on Thursday.”
He added: “Tomorrow marks exactly one year since Trump took office. We now from the experience of the last 12 months that Trump repeatedly threatens to impose tariffs, often actually does so, but also frequently refrains from doing so after talks and negotiations with him.”
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