GIAN EHRENZELLER/EPA
US President Donald Trump speaks during his special address at the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland
“I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I will not use force.” Trump eases tension, but humiliates Europeans in Davos. All he asks for, he considers, “is a piece of ice.”
North American President Donald Trump ruled out the use of force to take control of Greenland this Wednesday in Davos, but reiterated his intention to acquire the territory as he considers that only the United States can protect it.
“We probably won’t achieve anything unless I decide to use excessive force and violence, which would make us, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that. Okay. Now everyone says ‘Oh, that’s great.’ That was probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I was going to use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I will not use force”, said Trump, addressing the World Economic Forum, taking place in Davos.
In a highly anticipated intervention, given the tensions between the United States and Europe precisely due to the US administration’s intention to take control of the autonomous Danish territory under the aegis of NATO, Trump criticized the European continent a lotwhich he considered to be in decline and weak.
Stating that he has “immense respect for the people of Greenland and Denmark”, he highlighted that “each NATO member has the obligation to defend its territory”something that he considers that Denmark is not capable of doing.
Drawing a parallel with the Second World War, Donald Trump pointed out that Denmark surrendered to Germany within hours and said that it had to be America that protected Greenland and won the war, commenting that, if it weren’t for the United States, the majority of those present in the audience “would be speaking German and, perhaps, a little Japanese”.
Regretting that the United States returned the territory to Denmark after the end of the world conflict in 1945, which he considered “stupidity”, Trump considered that Denmark was being “ungrateful” — a criticism he also directed at the Atlantic Alliance itself — and stressed that all it asked for “is a piece of ice”.
“I ask for very little, compared to what we gave them for many, many decades (…). They have two possibilities: either they say yes, and we will be very grateful, or they say no, and we will remember”, declared Trump, who called for the opening of “immediate negotiations” with a view to acquiring Greenland.
