Trump\u2019s assertions that the US should acquire or control Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, have strained relations between Washington and Copenhagen \u2014 \u200cboth founding NATO members \u2014 \u200cand more \u2060broadly US ties with Europe.<\/p>\n
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Ankara that Denmark was \u200cstill pursuing diplomatic negotiations with Greenland and the US.<\/p>\n
The outcome of the talks has yet to be presented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an agreement with the US administration that, within the framework of the kingdom\u2019s red lines, we will try to see if we can find a solution that also addresses the US\u2019s legitimate security interests,\u201d Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen said he \u201cfirmly\u201d believed it was possible to reach a deal that would satisfy Greenland, Denmark and the US, by expanding a 1951 US-Danish defence agreement that gives Washington broad military access to the Arctic island.<\/p>\n
Greenland\u2019s prime minister said in May that increasing the US military presence in the Arctic \u2060territory was part of the ongoing talks.<\/p>\n
![\"Denmark's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2ec144ce1a9139ac4f887f6dbe1a1c2ae142b98f-4x3-x1668y160w3663h2748.jpg\")
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara during the NATO summit. Credit: Pool\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trump has ordered an immediate halt to all trade with NATO ally Spain, escalating tensions over defence spending and the \u200cIran war.<\/p>\n
This is despite European Union rules requiring trade negotiations to be conducted as a single bloc.<\/p>\n
It \u200cwas the second \u200ctime Trump has \u2060instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt commerce with Spain over its refusal to commit to NATO\u2019s new defence spending target of five per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n
However, after his first such promise in March, trade between the two countries continued normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpain doesn\u2019t agree to anything, and you shouldn\u2019t carry them,\u201d Trump told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who later tried to soothe the tension by saying that Spain \u201cmade a huge step last year\u201d raising its spending to 2 per cent, although he added that \u201cthere are still issues we \u2060have to solve\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to do any trade with them, \u200call right?\u201d Trump said, turning to Bessent, who replied: \u201cYes, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump then added, \u201cTake it immediately. Don\u2019t even talk to them. They\u2019re hopeless. They\u2019re bad people . . . They make \u200cso much money with us, and we\u2019re going to see that they make a lot less.\u201d<\/p>\n
The office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who leads a minority leftist government, said it was treating Trump\u2019s statements as \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d and did not intend to change the \u201cexcellent\u201d relations it enjoyed with Washington.<\/p>\n
It pointed out that Spain had a trade deficit with the US and that economic ties were forged by private companies rather than governments, adding that as part \u200cof the customs and trade union, individual EU members could not be singled out.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Spain after Sanchez refused to let the US use its airspace or bases on its territory for the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Spain is the world\u2019s largest olive oil exporter and also sells auto parts, steel, and chemicals to the US, although analysts consider it to be less vulnerable to Trump\u2019s threats of economic punishment than other \u2060European economies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark is ready to \u201cdefend every inch\u201d of NATO, including the kingdom of Denmark, Danish \u200cPrime Minister Mette…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[1528,71,57,1158,5624,830,1827],"class_list":["post-125822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-americas","tag-europe","tag-greenland","tag-politics","tag-us-politics","tag-usa","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116887785701669616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}