President Donald Trump has announced 10% tariffs effective February 1 on Nordic and EU countries that do not support his plan to take control of Greenland. The tariffs are to increase to 25% effective June 1.

The latest threats come days after a meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, seeking to ease tensions.  Denmark has expressed increasing concern about possible US military action in Greenland.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” said Trump.

Military forces from France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK recently arrived for exercises in Greenland.  The exercises are ostensibly meant to show President Trump that European members of NATO can defend Greenland against Russian or Chinese designs on the territory. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president has made his priority quite clear, that he wants the United States to acquire Greenland. He thinks it’s in our best national security to do that.”

Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

Sara Olsvig, chair of the Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit, said that statements from the Trump administration offer “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the US administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers… And that really is concerning.”

The parties agreed to form a working group to continue discussions to resolve differences and address US concerns.  However, the administration described the ongoing discussions as “technical talks on the acquisition agreement” for the US to acquire Greenland.

Greenland is self-governing island within the Kingdom of Denmark.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a defensive alliance of 32 countries, including Denmark and the US.