DAVOS (Switzerland): US President Donald Trump descends on Davos for a showdown with European leaders as his bid to seize Greenland threatens to tear the transatlantic alliance apart.
Trump mocked the Europeans a day before heading to the World Economic Forum, where he will be the star of a dark, self-made drama over the fate of the autonomous Danish territory.
But leaders gathered at the Swiss ski resort have closed ranks against Trump’s aggressive stance, with French President Emmanuel Macron vowing to stand up against “bullies” and the EU promising an “unflinching” response.
Asked how far he was prepared to go to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a fellow NATO member, Trump told reporters:
“You’ll find out.”Later as he left the White House, the president admitted he had “no idea” how the trip to Davos would pan out.
It got off to an inauspicious start when a “minor electrical issue” forced his presidential jet to turn back shortly after takeoff, and Trump and his entourage had to switch to another plane.
Trump’s eagerly awaited speech at the annual gathering of the world’s economic and political elite, which he is attending for the first time in six years, is scheduled for 2.30pm local time.
But as the biggest rift opens between Washington and Europe in decades over his Greenland ambitions, Trump said he would have a number of meetings on the issue at Davos.
Trump insists 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.
He has turned up the pressure by threatening tariffs of up to 25 per cent on eight European countries for backing Denmark, prompting Europe to threaten countermeasures against the United States.
Trump dismissed European threats to fire a trade “bazooka” at the United States.
“Anything they do with us…all I have to do is meet it and it’s going to go ricocheting backward,” he said in an interview with News Nation.
“But we’re not looking into that. We’ll probably be able to work something out, possibly even during the next few days,” he added.
At Davos on Tuesday, Macron, in sunglasses because of a burst blood vessel, warned against US attempts to “subordinate Europe”, and blasted Trump’s tariff threats as “unacceptable”. – AFP
