'Something I Thought I'd Never Have to Write': Council of Europe Leader Sounds Alarm on Trumps Greenland Moves
Source: MEDIAite
Jan 19th, 2026, 7:15 am
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset penned a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump’s threats against Greenland in The New York Times on Monday, warning that “if international law can be set aside when it becomes inconvenient, trust is gone.”
Berset’s Times opinion piece struck down any dismissal of Trump’s push for control of Greenland as merely talk, claiming the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s dismissal of international law show “how quickly words can harden into action.” “We need to ask ourselves, on both sides of the Atlantic, if we want to live in a world where democracy is recast as weakness, truth as opinion and justice as an option,” wrote Berset.
The secretary general went on to strike down Trump’s justification for a U.S. acquisition of the autonomous territory within Denmark, calling the president’s attempts to paint Greenland as a security threat “a Cold-War mindset.”
“We are witnessing the return of an old strategic reflex: a Cold War mind-set in which geography is treated as destiny and influence as zero-sum, and independence is seen as a strategic risk rather than a democratic choice,” wrote Berset.
Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/something-i-thought-id-never-have-to-write-council-of-europe-leader-sounds-alarm-on-trumps-greenland-moves/
Link to NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/opinion/greenland-trump-europe.html
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