US urges Europe to avoid 'reflexive anger' over Greenland
Trump insists that mineral-rich Greenland is vital for US and NATO
Europeans should avoid "reflexive anger" and sit down with US President Donald Trump in Davos to hear his arguments about acquiring Greenland, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today (21 January).
Trump was on his way to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort, which has been overshadowed by a showdown with Europeans over his ambitions to seize the Danish autonomous territory.
"I will tell everyone: take a deep breath. Do not have this reflexive anger that we've seen and this bitterness," Bessent told reporters.
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"Why don't they sit down, wait for President Trump to get here and listen to his argument?" he said.
Bessent said Trump would arrive in Davos about three hours late after an electrical issue forced him to change planes.
Trump insists that mineral-rich Greenland is vital for US and NATO security against Russia and China as a melting Arctic opens up and the superpowers jostle for strategic advancement.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told the meeting of global political and business elites on Tuesday that the 27-nation bloc would be "unflinching" in its response to Trump's threats over Greenland.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to stand up against "bullies".
Bessent said the statements from the EU and French leaders were "inflammatory".
"We are asking our allies to understand that Greenland needs to be part of the United States," the US Treasury chief said.
Bessent recalled that Denmark had sold Caribbean territories to the United States in 1917, which were renamed the US Virgin Islands.
He said Denmark, which was neutral during World War I, "understood then the importance of the US Virgin Islands. They were worried about the German ramifications and if the war spread to the Caribbean, and the US needed the US Virgin Islands."
