US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to meet at the White House Wednesday with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Motsfeld. The meeting takes place amid escalating threats by US President Donald Trump to seize Greenland by military force, prompting European politicians and analysts to warn of the end of the NATO military alliance.

Trump has repeatedly insisted on Washington’s need to seize control of Greenland, a message he reinforced in an interview with The Atlantic earlier this month. He asserted that the island was needed “for reasons of national security,” pointing to alleged threats posed by Russia and China. The US has had a continuous military presence on the island since World War II, and retains the Pituffik Space Base, which is crucial for missile defence.

Trump’s determination to take over Greenland is part of his so-called “Donroe Doctrine.” Outlined in last November’s National Security Strategy, it vows to eliminate all “non-hemispheric competitors” from the Western hemisphere and give Washington unchallenged domination over the area’s raw materials and trade routes, as well as the governments of other states. Taking control of Greenland, which lies off the Canadian east coast, would strengthen Trump’s push to integrate Canada as the 51st state of the US.

This “America first” policy has produced a deep rift in the post-war transatlantic alliance. The European imperialist powers, which long relied on US hegemony to pursue their own global interests, now find themselves targeted by Washington as competitors in a new redivision of the world. Trump’s seizure of Greenland would spell the end of the alliance, an outcome the European powers are desperately trying to avoid because they are not yet ready militarily to act independently without US support.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul declared Sunday, prior to departing for Washington for talks with Rubio, that NATO should assume a greater role in the Arctic, and that only Greenland and Denmark should determine Greenland’s sovereignty. “Security in the North Atlantic is a special responsibility for us, it’s not just in NATO’s name, but it’s also very important strategically for our common security.”

Underlining Berlin’s own aggressive ambitions in the Arctic region, Wadephul paid a visit to Iceland en route to Washington. The German armed forces (Bundeswehr) signed a declaration of intent with the North Atlantic island last year that will allow the stationing of German aircraft and naval vessels in Iceland. Wadephul stressed the strategic significance of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap, a stretch of water that serves as one of Russia’s last remaining access routes to the open sea.

Notwithstanding Trump’s brazen threat to seize its territory, which it ruled as a colony until 1953, the Danish government is also continuing to plead for a renewal of its alliance with Washington. At a press conference before his departure for Washington, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen wore a pin displaying a Danish and American flag side by side.

Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasised at a separate press conference with Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen that Denmark was prepared to spend more on Arctic security. Asked how she could persuade Trump not to take over Greenland, Frederiksen responded that Denmark could do so by being a “good ally” as Denmark has always been.

Further spending on Denmark’s military, which has already risen sharply over recent years, will be paid for by public spending cuts and attacks on the working class. Copenhagen has already committed to purchasing an expanded fleet of F-35 fighter jets to facilitate Arctic operations, new ships, drones, and radar systems to patrol Greenland, and a new headquarters to expand the army’s Arctic Command on the island. Denmark’s defence spending rose by 80 percent in 2025, reaching 68 billion kroner (€9.1 billion), compared to 37 billion in the previous year.

The European powers have postured as defenders of international law in the face of Trump’s threat to resort to military force to “own” Greenland if necessary. Last week, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain issued a joint statement with Denmark declaring that they would all uphold the principles of “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity.” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen stated that “law is stronger than force,” while Council President Antonio Costa asserted, “Nothing can be decided about Denmark and about Greenland without Denmark, or without Greenland.”

This is utter hypocrisy. The European powers have never shown any concern for international law when violating it suits their imperialist interests, such as with the carve-up of Yugoslavia, or NATO’s involvement in the neocolonial occupation of Afghanistan or air bombardment of Libya. Earlier this month, they refused to explicitly condemn Trump’s illegal abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his vow to run the South American country like a colony.

The major European powers are desperately trying to retain some form of cooperation with the US for as long as possible, as they rush at breakneck speed to carry through vast rearmament programmes to put them in a position to act independently of, and even against, Washington on the world stage. But these plans will still take several years to implement, and will inevitably provoke an explosion of class struggle as governments across the continent eliminate what remains of public services and worker rights to pay for militarism and war. For the time being, they remain dependent on US logistical and military support to continue the war against Russia, which the European powers want to pursue at all costs.

In addition to the breakup of the transatlantic alliance, what really troubles the European imperialists about Trump’s seizure of Greenland is that they could be cut out militarily and economically from the Arctic region. Due to climate change, control over the Arctic is key for dominating new trade routes opening up as ice melts. Moreover, a US takeover of Greenland would not only give Washington ownership over the island’s rich natural resources, but also Denmark’s claims to territorial waters in the Arctic Ocean, which include oil and gas exploration rights under the seabed.

The European powers hope to avert this outcome by expanding NATO’s involvement in the region. The Financial Times reported that Britain, France and Germany are in talks to create an “Arctic Sentry” exercise, modelled on the “Baltic Sentry” operation established early last year under German command aimed at strengthening surveillance of Russian vessels in the Baltic Sea. “Arctic Sentry” would include US troops in a bid to mollify Trump’s concerns about a lack of security in Greenland.

At the same time, European politicians have acknowledged openly that an American seizure of Greenland would spell the end of the NATO military alliance. “If you turn your back on cooperation by threatening an ally, something we have not seen before, everything comes to an end,” said Frederiksen on Sunday. Armin Laschet, a member of the governing Christian Democrats in Germany and chair of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, commented, “We have to make clear to the Americans in diplomatic talks that military action against a small NATO country would destroy the remaining trust in the alliance.”

None of the contending parties have anything progressive to offer the population of Greenland, or the working class throughout Europe and the US. An American imperialist takeover of the island would mark a further step in Trump’s mad plan to dominate the Western hemisphere as the foundation for world war against Washington’s rivals, above all China. Some sort of compromise under which Greenland remains nominally part of the Kingdom of Denmark would be based upon a huge expansion of US and NATO military activity in Greenland and throughout the Arctic, turning the entire region into another front in a rapidly escalating third world war.

The only way to stop the revival of imperialist barbarism on both sides of the Atlantic is through the construction of a working-class-led anti-war movement based on a socialist programme. Workers in Europe and the United States, who are bearing the full cost of militarism and war through job cuts, austerity and attacks on their social and democratic rights, must unite to put an end to the capitalist profit system, the root cause of war and imperialist plunder.