NATO chief Mark Rutte warned on Monday (January 27, 2026) that Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.

U.S. President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Mr. Rutte last week.

The diplomatic crisis gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Mr. Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.

“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the U.S. — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Mr. Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.

He said that EU countries would have to double defence spending from the 5% NATO target agreed last year to 10% and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.

“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the U.S. nuclear umbrella,” the former Dutch Prime Minister said. “So hey, good luck.”

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot hit back at the NATO chief’s statements, posting on X on Monday (January 27, 2026) evening that “Europeans can and must take responsibility for their own security”.

Mr. Rutte insisted that U.S. commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defence clause remained “total”, but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.

“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the U.S. has every interest in NATO,” he said.

The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Mr. Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defence spending.

He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defence force that could replace U.S. troops on the continent.

“It will make things more complicated. I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will love it. So think again,” Mr. Rutte said.

On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Mr. Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defence of the Arctic”, but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over U.S. presence on the island.

“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.

Mr. Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Mr. Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the U.S. leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.

“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.

“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”

U.S. President Donald Trump linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace ​Prize, saying he no longer thought “purely of Peace” as the row over the island on Monday (January 19, 2026) threatened to reignite a trade ‌war with Europe.

Mr. Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, threatening punitive tariffs on ​countries which stand in his way and prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.

The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Mr. Trump’s refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence.

It has also plunged trade relations between the EU and the U.S., the bloc’s biggest export market, into renewed uncertainty after the two sides painstakingly reached a trade deal last year in response to Mr.Trump’s swinging tariffs.

In a written message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that was seen by Reuters, Mr. Trump said: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 ​Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now ⁠think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee annoyed Mr. Trump by awarding the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. She gave her medal last week to Mr. Trump during a White House meeting, though the Nobel Committee said ​the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked.

In his message, ⁠Mr. Trump also repeated his accusation that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia or China.

“… and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” he wrote, adding: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

Italy’s Prime Minister called U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on opponents of his plan to seize Greenland a “mistake” on Sunday (January 18, 2026), adding she had told him her views.

“I believe that imposing new sanctions today would be a mistake,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told journalists during a trip to Seoul.

“I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think, and I spoke to the NATO secretary general, who confirmed that NATO is beginning to work on this issue.”

However, the far-right Prime Minister — a Trump ally in Europe — sought to downplay the conflict, telling journalists “there has been a problem of understanding and communication” between Europe and the United States related to the Arctic island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Mr. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25% on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland over their objections to his moves.

Ms. Meloni said it was up to NATO to take an active role in the growing crisis.

“NATO is the place where we must try to organise together deterrents against interference that may be hostile in a territory that is clearly strategic, and I believe that the fact that NATO has begun to work on this is a good initiative,” she told reporters.

Ms. Meloni said that “from the American point of view, the message that had come from this side of the Atlantic was not clear”.

“It seems to me that the risk is that the initiatives of some European countries were interpreted as anti-American, which was clearly not the intention.”

Ms. Meloni did not specify to what exactly she was referring.

Mr. Trump claims the United States needs Greenland for its national security.