On January 18, British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy announced that the British government would not yield to pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has announced plans to impose trade tariffs on European countries protesting his ambition to seize control of Greenland.
Our stance on Greenland is unnegotiable. We have made it very clear and will continue to affirm it," Ms. Nandy told local media, recalling the previous statement of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
According to Mr. Starmer, the future of the island is "a matter decided by the people of Greenland and Denmark", while saying that imposing taxes on NATO countries opposing Mr. Trump's ambitions is "completely wrong".
For his part, President Trump believes that placing Greenland under US sovereignty is necessary for national security, and affirmed that Denmark and other European allies in NATO are not capable of protecting this island from the risk of being seized by China or Russia in a hypothetical scenario.
This move has faced various levels of criticism in Europe, where countries accuse Washington of weakening its military alliance.
Last week, some Western and Northern European countries - including Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and the UK - sent 1 to 15 soldiers to Greenland to participate in a military exercise led by Denmark. According to a German military spokesman, German soldiers have now returned home.
The European Union (EU) also threatened to trigger retaliation measures that officials call "commercial bazooka" in response to Mr. Trump's taxes.
Meanwhile, the US 10% tariff on imports from 8 European countries, related to the dispute over Greenland, is expected to take effect from February 1 and may increase to 25% on June 1.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation related to Greenland "abnormal according to international law", but said this was not surprising, because Mr. Trump publicly ignored whether other countries considered his actions legal or not.
Mr. Peskov emphasized that Russia is still closely monitoring developments.
