Former NATO ambassador: Trump ‘breaking the bond of trust’ with Greenland remarks

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President Trump’s repeated threats for the U.S. to take over Greenland are breaking the bonds of trust of NATO, a former ambassador to the alliance warned on Wednesday.

Nicholas Burns served as the U.S. envoy to the alliance at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the only time the Article 5 mutual defense pact was invoked and by the U.S.

“The allies rushed to our defense. Within 24 hours, they had pledged to defend us,” he said in an interview on CNN, warning that Trump’s disparaging, demanding and critical comments against leaders of NATO countries and against the alliance was eroding trust among members.

“And I think what he‘s done on Greenland, he‘s broken the bond of trust that is at the heart of the NATO alliance,” Burns added.

Trump, attending the NATO summit in Turkey, repeated his desire for the U.S. to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, an ally of the alliance.

“Greenland… that should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump said, speaking alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Burns noted that NATO is important for the U.S. in particular due to potential threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the more than four-year-long war against Ukraine. He gave Trump credit for pushing allies to increase their domestic spending on defense but warned that the president was focusing on grievances undermining the alliance.

“President Trump can legitimately take some credit for the fact that he has pushed the NATO allies to spend more on defense. Most of these allies were spending below 2% of their gross domestic product on defense,” he said.

“They‘ve all committed to spend 3.5 percent, an additional 1.5 percent on military infrastructure. This is a major achievement,” the former envoy continued. “He won‘t take the win.”

Burns, who also served as U.S. ambassador to China under President Biden, added that the threat from Russia extends beyond the land threat on the European continent.

“So when the president says somehow the Atlantic Ocean is going to protect us in the 21st century from Russia, he’s just badly mistaken,” he told the outlet.

“He‘s living in some other century, but not the century we‘re living in,” Burns said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pushed back on the renewed discussion, vowing to defend the arctic island.

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory,” she told reporters ahead of the summit in Ankara.

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