BRUSSELS, Belgium — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is confronting its most severe existential challenge in history due to President Donald Trump’s territorial aspirations toward Greenland, according to former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. In an exclusive interview with AFP at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the former alliance leader declared that diplomatic appeasement of the American president must immediately cease.
Rasmussen, who served as NATO’s chief from 2009 to 2014 following his tenure as Danish Prime Minister, characterized the situation as not merely an institutional crisis but a fundamental threat to the entire transatlantic partnership and the post-World War II international order. “The future of NATO and the global governance framework hang in the balance,” Rasmussen asserted during the Tuesday briefing.
The seasoned statesman urged current NATO leadership, including Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European counterparts to adopt a more assertive stance toward the White House following Trump’s tariff threats and unconventional territorial proposals. “Strategic recalibration is imperative—Trump exclusively respects demonstrated strength and consolidated unity,” Rasmussen emphasized. “European nations must collectively exhibit these qualities. The era of diplomatic flattery has conclusively ended.”
Rasmussen’s stark assessment emerged as European diplomats, including Rutte, prepared for high-stakes negotiations with Trump during the Davos summit, aiming to de-escalate tensions surrounding the Arctic territory. While acknowledging that the current crisis remains potentially resolvable, Rasmussen warned that Trump’s actions have already precipitated a psychological schism between Washington and its traditional European allies—a development that strategically advantages Russia and China.
“This geopolitical confrontation fundamentally differs from all previous disputes within NATO’s history,” Rasmussen observed. He issued a grave warning that any U.S. military action against Greenland would effectively terminate the alliance’s existence.
The former Danish leader criticized Trump’s Greenland fascination as a “tactical diversion weapon” distracting from Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine. “While media focus remains fixed on Greenland—which presents no genuine threat to North Atlantic security—Moscow’s continued attacks against Ukraine constitute the actual danger requiring sustained international attention,” he noted.
Rasmussen proposed potential diplomatic compromises, including modernizing the 1951 U.S.-Denmark defense agreement governing military deployments, facilitating American commercial access to Greenland’s mineral resources, and establishing joint exclusion of Russian and Chinese interests from the territory. However, he unequivocally rejected any territorial concession: “Greenland remains categorically unavailable for purchase. As an experienced real estate professional, the president should recognize that unavailable properties cannot be acquired.”