DAVOS: Heads of key European institutions have expressed strong concern over recent actions by the United States, particularly President Donald Trump’s remarks on Greenland and trade, warning that such conduct is inconsistent with long-standing transatlantic alliance norms.
Speaking to journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Washington was behaving very strangely for an ally, in response to questions on whether the US should still be regarded as a partner of the European Union.
Lagarde noted that decades of alliance under the North Atlantic Treaty should preclude threats to seize territory or impose sweeping trade restrictions.
When you are allies under the North Atlantic Treaty, when you have been allies for decades and have been part of each other’s history, threatening to seize territory that is clearly not for sale, such as Greenland, and waving tariff restrictions and other trade barriers, is not really behaving like an ally, she said.
She added that she hoped the situation would become clearer after President Trump clarified his position later in the day.
Similar concerns were raised by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.
Von der Leyen described threats of punitive tariffs as a mistake, while Costa warned that such actions could pose a serious risk to Europe’s prosperity and security.
