Linda Robinson
Two things emerged clearly from this week’s Copenhagen Democracy Summit, the eighth annual gathering convened by former Danish Prime Minister and former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The disruptive foreign policy of U.S. President Donald Trump has jolted many countries into the stark realization that they must do more, quickly, to shoulder the burden of protecting and advancing democracy, in the face of massive, unprecedented reductions in U.S. spending assistance and defense commitments that have anchored global security since the end of World War II. Second, as their initial shock has worn off, many leaders have become increasingly vocal in rejecting the Trump administration’s apparent embrace of what Rasmussen called “might makes right” as an operating principle.
There was universal condemnation of the idea, floated by President Trump, of formally recognizing Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian territory as part of a deal to end Russia’s aggression. “We will never recognize territorial acquisition,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said, noting that his Balkan nation had been subject to just such a playbook three decades ago, in that case by Serbia. Rasmussen minced no words in challenging Trump’s benign view of Putin, saying that the Russian leader’s objective is to roll back NATO forces from Eastern and Central Europe, as he demanded in 2021.
Even greater outrage was voiced over Trump’s explicit and repeated suggestions that he might seize territory from some of the oldest and most loyal U.S. allies, including Denmark, the host country, which President Trump has suggested relieving of Greenland. Greenland’s former prime minister, Múte Bourup Egede, who is currently the deputy PM, flatly stated that “We are not a property,” and that the country “belongs to the Greenlandic people.” Mark Garneau, a former Canadian foreign minister from the Liberal Party, similarly rejected the idea that Canada would become the fifty-first U.S. state, as Trump has repeatedly suggested. Former UK Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron bluntly noted that the U.S. administration is friendlier to its enemies than its allies.
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