Denmark and Greenland say sovereignty is not negotiable after Trump’s reversal on tariffs

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Leaders of Denmark and its territory Greenland insisted Thursday that the island’s sovereignty was non-negotiable after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had agreed on a framework with the NATO chief that Trump said would grant the U.S. “total access” to the island.

Much about the potential deal remained unclear, though Trump said in a Fox Business interview that “we’re going to have total access to Greenland” as part of what he has said is needed to ensure the island does not come under control of Russia or China. He added that “we’re going to have all the military access we want.”

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte did not propose any “compromise to sovereignty” in discussions with Trump, and Danish officials have noted that, in any case, NATO doesn’t have a mandate to negotiate a deal on behalf of Denmark and Greenland.

Trump on Wednesday abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. It was a dramatic reversal hours after he insisted he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership” — though he also said he would not use force.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen voiced guarded relief, but he said he knew no concrete details of the agreement Trump cited.

“‘I don’t know what there is in the agreement, or the deal about my country,” he told reporters.

Trump called it a “framework of a future deal” that, if completed, would also allow the United States to install an element of his “Golden Dome,” part of a multibillion dollar missile defense system, in Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said security in the Arctic is a matter for all of NATO, and it is “good and natural” that it be discussed between the U.S. president and Rutte. She said in a statement that she had spoken with Rutte “on an ongoing basis,” including before and after he met Trump in Davos.

She wrote that “we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty” and added: “I have been informed that this has not been the case.”

Frederiksen said that Denmark wants to continue engaging in constructive dialogue with allies on how to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the Golden Dome program, “provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity.”

Denmark has said the U.S., which already has a military presence in Greenland, can boost its bases there. The U.S. is already party to a 1951 treaty that gives it broad rights to set up military bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.

Hart, the NATO spokesperson, said that Rutte “did not propose any compromise to sovereignty during his meeting with President Trump.” She said that negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. “will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold – economically or militarily – in Greenland.”

Nielsen, Greenland’s leader, said Rutte had delivered the message that Greenland is willing to do more and host a NATO mission.

“Until yesterday, we couldn’t rule out anything,” he told reporters in the island’s capital, Nuuk. “Respectful dialogue through the right channels is what we have been seeking from the get-go, and I also feel that’s the intention now from the other parties, and I’m happy for that.”

He pointed to a working group that the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers agreed with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to set up last week, before Trump threatened tariffs. Denmark and the White House at the time offered diverging public views on its purpose.

Asked whether U.S. sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland might be a possibility, Nielsen said that “we are ready to negotiate a better partnership and so on, but sovereignty is a red line.”

On the streets of Copenhagen, some were skeptical about Trump’s switch.

“I think the man has said many things and done a lot of different things to what he says,” said Louise Pedersen, 22, who works with a startup company. “I have a hard time believing it. I think it’s terrifying that we stand here in 2026.”

She said it’s for Greenlanders to decide what happens with their land — “not Donald Trump.”

“I don’t really trust anything Mr. Trump is saying,” said Poul Bjoern Strand, 70, who works in advertising.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of the European countries that had faced Trump’s threat of tariffs over Greenland, underlined the need for European NATO allies to do more to secure the Arctic region.

“We will protect Denmark, Greenland, the north from the threat posed by Russia,” he said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “We will uphold the principles on which the trans-Atlantic partnership is founded, namely sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“We support talks between Denmark, Greenland (and) the United States on the basis of these principles,” aiming for closer cooperation, Merz said. “It is good news that we are making steps into that right direction. I welcome President Trump’s remarks from last night — this is the right way to go.”

Frederiksen traveled to the United Kingdom on Thursday for talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said the “hard yards” of bolstering Arctic security can begin and credited Trump’s “pragmatism” for withdrawing his tariff threats.

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Moulson reported from Berlin and Burrows from Nuuk, Greenland. Aamer Madhani in Washington, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.