WASHINGTON, January 18. /TASS/. The European Union will not be able to offer any serious rebuff to US plans to take Greenland as long as it pursues a hostile strategy toward Russia, Dr Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told TASS commenting on recent statements by US President Donald Trump regarding Greenland.
"No serious European resistance is possible while they continue to pursue a strategy of hostility towards Russia that is utterly dependent on US support," the political analyst said answering a question about whether Brussels should be expected to offer any significant rebuff to Washington in the current situation.
He also compared Trump's statements on Saturday to the diplomatic note militaristic Japan delivered to the United States in December 1941.
"My response to Trump's tweet [on Truth Social network] would be very similar to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull's response to the Japanese diplomatic note justifying the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor:
"In all my 50 years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions - on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them," the expert said.
On January 17, Trump announced on Truth Social that the Washington administration has imposed 10% duties on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, Finland and the Netherlands, which will remain in force until agreements are reached on "the full and final acquisition of Greenland" by the United States.
This decision comes into effect on February 1, Trump added. As he stressed, from June 1, the rate of these duties will increase to 25%. Furthermore, Trump criticized Europe's intention to send its forces to Greenland, calling it "a very dangerous game." He argued that possession of Greenland is necessary to strengthen US national security and the effective deployment of the American Golden Dome missile defense system. Finally, the US leader expressed the opinion that the United States "for many years" subsidized "Denmark and all [other] countries of the European Union."
Greenland is part of Denmark as an autonomous territory. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to allied commitments to NATO, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty, under which the United States has committed itself to defending the island from possible aggression.