Many world leaders heaved a sigh of relief Wednesday when U.S. President Donald Trump said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he would not use military force to take over Greenland, later announcing he had formed a “framework” of a deal for the Arctic region. The de-escalation is a positive step towards a solution that the U.S., North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), European Union (EU) and Greenland itself can all agree on, an expert told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday. “This very unclear framework deal seems to be the next best solution,” said Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University. In a post on social media site Truth Social hours after his speech on Wednesday, Trump said that he and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte “have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.” Trump also backed down from earlier threats to impose additional tariffs on European countries over their pushback against the U.S. potentially acquiring Greenland from Denmark. Hurrelmann said it’s too early to know anything about the details included in the framework, as neither Trump nor NATO have offered any specifics, but he said that the argument for why the U.S. needed full control of Greenland was flawed from the beginning. “The whole idea of NATO is that allies protect their territory together, and that’s something that they can absolutely do with Greenland,” he said. Danish member of Parliament Rasmus Jarlov told CTV News Channel on Wednesday that both Denmark and Greenland have always been open to the idea of an increased U.S. military presence in Greenland, as the countries have an existing defence agreement that would allow it. “It’s no problem, if they want to have another (military) base, that’s fine. We already have a defence agreement, and we were used to a much, much bigger American presence in Greenland in the past, so we don’t have any problem with that at all,” he said. “We look forward to seeing what the proposal is from Trump and Rutte. We’re certainly willing to engage in a dialogue and discussion about how we can improve the security in the Arctic, there’s nothing we want more than that … it sounds like a good development.”
