Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

“Our country is not something that can be annexed or taken over simply because someone wishes to do so,” said Greenland Premier Orla Joelsen.

Leaders of several European nations on Tuesday released a joint statement pushing back on US President Donald Trump’s threat to seize Greenland from Denmark.

The statement, which was signed by the heads of state of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Denmark, and the UK, emphasized that security in the Arctic region must be “achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty and the inviolability of borders.”

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While noting that the US is an “essential partner” in the NATO alliance, the leaders nonetheless said that “Greenland belongs to its people” and “it is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

In a separate statement released Tuesday, Greenland Premier Orla Joelsen thanked the European leaders for speaking up in defense of his people’s independence and emphasized that Greenland is not an imperial trophy to be won by the US president.

“Our country is not something that can be annexed or taken over simply because someone wishes to do so,” Joelsen said. “At a time when the president of the United States has once again stated that the United States is very serious about Greenland, this support from our allies in NATO is both important and unequivocal.”

Trump and his allies have been making more aggressive statements in recent days about taking Greenland, which Trump has called essential to US national security.

Top Trump aide Stephen Miller on Monday night refused to rule out using military force to take Greenland during a Monday interview with CNN, and further claimed that “the future of the free world depends on America to be able to assert ourselves and our interests without an apology.”

The Trump administration’s bellicose rhetoric, combined with its illegal invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has reportedly convinced European leaders to take the threat of US imperialism on their territories seriously.

Danish sources who spoke with The Atlantic on Monday said that the Venezuela invasion was a wakeup call showing them that Trump is deadly serious about seizing Greenland against the will of its own people.

“Western diplomats and security officials we spoke with were apoplectic,” reported The Atlantic. “One told us that Denmark and its Nordic neighbors have been taking the president’s statements seriously for a year but have remained uncertain about how to interpret them and, especially, how to respond.”

Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, argued in a Tuesday column for The Guardian that European leaders’ refusal to condemn Trump’s ouster of Maduro would only make it more likely that he would attack their territories as well in the coming months.

“Even if European leaders are being more vocal in support of Denmark, their ambiguity over Venezuela signals submission to Trump,” Tocci argued. “And the more European countries act as colonies, unable and unwilling to stand up to Trump, the more they’ll be treated as such.”

Trump’s threats against Greenland have drawn widespread condemnation from elected Democrats, as well as from Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who wrote in a Tuesday post on X that it was “embarrassing” that he even had to address Trump’s decision to menace a NATO ally.

“Denigrating our allies serves no purpose and there is no up side,” he said. “It weakens us by diminishing trust between friends, and Russia and China love it. So… stop the stupid ‘we want Greenland BS.’”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).