The New Statesman

Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus,

I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.

This is what Donald Trump wrote in a letter to Norway's Prime Minister Yonastor this weekend, and, true to his word, peace is not on the US president's mind.

On Saturday, Trump said he would impose tariffs on the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.

This is the latest escalation of his wish to purchase Greenland, purchase by force.

His approach has been described as blackmail by European leaders, with Kirstama saying the move is completely wrong. Is the security of NATO and the West under threat? I'm Olly Dougmore and this is Daily Politics from the New Statesman. We're going to be hearing from Rasmus Yarlov, chair of Denmark's defense committee later in the episode. But now I'm joined by the new statesman's editor, Tom McTay.

Hello, Tom. Hello, thanks for having me. Pleasure. Tom, before we get into the nitty-gritty of the tariffs, let's take a step back. Trump wants to buy Greenland, and if a business transaction doesn't take place, he's prepared to invade or annex the territory. This feels like of the most extraordinary, but also significant geopolitical stories of the 21st century.

Yeah. I mean, it absolutely is. And you think for a moment, you sort of question yourself and go, am I overdoing this? Is it really? I mean, how many people live in Greenland? Why do we care about it? You know, it's a long way away. It's a land far away

that we don't, we know little and don't care about. And yet, you sort of boil it down and you

just get back to the basics and you say, it is sovereign territory of a European state and a NATO

state. And the current proposal is that another NATO state, the premier NATO state, the state on which we all depend, is going to potentially invade it and take it by force against the wishes of the people of Greenland and of Denmark and of the entire European Union and the rest of NATO.

At the very same time in which we are completely dependent on them for their defense

in relation to our eastern flank when it comes to Ukraine.

So it is absolutely central and you can see that in how European leaders are responding. They are responding by saying,

you will have to shoot our troops to get this territory. You will have to kill us to get it. Obviously

they can. They have the numbers. We couldn't defend Greenland if we tried. I say we, European NATO

countries, but certainly not Denmark.

And so you will kill us.

And then we will break NATO.

That will be the end of NATO.

So that is why it's so significant.

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