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Von der Leyen vows ‘unflinching’ response to Trump with EU-US relations in turmoil

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Washington to keep its hands off Greenland and said Europe’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats would be “unflinching.”

In a wide-ranging speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, von der Leyen said the self-ruling Danish territory’s sovereignty is “non-negotiable,” despite Trump’s repeated promises to purchase or annex it.

“Our response will be unflinching, united and proportional,” von der Leyen said, adding the EU would show “full solidarity” with Greenland and was planning a “massive” increase in European investments in the island.

Trump vowed over the weekend to inflict punishing tariffs on six EU countries, the U.K. and Norway over their opposition to his Greenland grab. He said an additional 10 percent tariff would enter into force on Feb. 1 unless Europe hands over the Arctic island. 

The EU is internally divided on how best to respond to the American president’s saber-rattling, with France requesting the EU deploy its Anti-Coercion Instrument, or trade bazooka, to cut off U.S. firms from the bloc’s single market, while other capitals have urged restraint and dialogue. 

In a veiled rebuke to Trump, von der Leyen singled out “the people of the United States” as Europe’s friends, calling on Washington to respect the trade deal it struck with the EU last summer in Scotland, which set a tariff ceiling of 15 percent on most European exports. 

“In politics as in business: a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something,” she said, adding Trump’s proposed new tariffs were a “mistake.”

And with Trump dramatically rewriting the transatlantic alliance, “Europe needs to adjust to the new security architecture and realities that we are now facing,” von der Leyen said, adding the “old order” is dead.

Von der Leyen also used the speech to display the EU’s network of friends across the world, at a time when Washington is withdrawing from the multilateral order. 

Adapting to the new order means forming a raft of new trade alliances, from the Mercosur bloc in South America, which last weekend finalized a trade deal with the EU to create a sprawling free-trade zone, to Mexico, Indonesia and India, she argued.

Brussels and New Delhi still have “work to do,” von der Leyen conceded, just as the two sides are supposed to shake hands when she travels to India in the coming days. 

“But we are on the cusp of a historic trade agreement,” she said, describing it as the “mother” of all trade deals.

“The point is that the world has changed permanently,” von der Leyen said. “We need to change with it.”

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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