Belligerent Don threatens Europe’s unity

Politics has never been as explosive and coercive as could be imagined in the wake of United States President Mr. Donald Trump’s threat to invade Greenland, an autonomous region under Denmark. He has warned the eight European nations that have sent troops to the island of imposing a 10 per cent tariff on imports from them.  Trump’s threat must be seen as bullying a NATO ally and is interpreted as a disruptive behaviour against the post-World War II international order.

While French President Emmanuel Macron has described it as ‘unacceptable’, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has dubbed it ‘completely wrong’ and warned that any action in this regard would be fraught with dangers for transatlantic ties. It is for the first time that Europe and the NATO allies are faced with an issue that has the potential to rupture ties built over nearly eight decades and dilute the consensus on defending the EU allies against Russia, the dominant power on the borders of Europe.

While President Trump’s abnormal behaviour became apparent with his imposition of sanctions and punitive tariff against nations doing trade with Russians, the latest acts of abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife and threats of acquiring Greenland fall under the category of bullying ways and point to his waywardness in matters of strategy and is akin to riding roughshod against the established world order. 

Traditional diplomacy provides no scope for even imposing tariff on allies opposed to the threat of acquiring Greenland. Not only this, the threat constitutes a betrayal towards Denmark, a historically close ally of the US and also threatens to fragment the NATO alliance, the main bulwark of unity among non-Russian major powers in Europe. Destabilised European unity would only encourage the weaker among the European nations to seek the security umbrella from the Russians or Chinese.

This would not only weaken Europe, but would also offer a golden opportunity for emerging superpower China to extend a leg into the available wedge in Europe. As for other nations and regional powers such as India, the security scenario is increasingly being rendered fuzzy. Trump’s argument that he intends to usurp Greenland as he perceives Russians or Chinese usurping it and threatening the US security in future should be considered merely as figment of his imagination.

This kind of a distorted logic would only make this world a dangerous place where pre-emptive strikes would be justified on the basis of perception. Any attempt by Trump to invade Greenland only on the basis of “perceived threat” does not qualify for a measure of self-defence even under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Any such action will be totally illegal and will be considered pure aggression. Europe now faces stark choices: If the US itself dismembers one NATO ally today, how should Europe believe that the US would come to its aid if Russia or China threaten to rip another European nation apart in the future?