The Donroe Doctrine: Trump and Greenland. Expert Discussion

Valdai Club conference hall, Tsvetnoy boulevard 16/1, Moscow, Russia

On February 25, the Moscow venue of the Valdai Club hosted a discussion titled “The Donroe Doctrine: Trump and Greenland”. What will the escalation of tensions within NATO lead to? Will Donald Trump succeed in achieving his aims with regard to Greenland? And what are the limits of solidarity among the Nordic states and the EU as a whole?

Materials

Club events

Values of the World Majority

The Donroe Doctrine—America’s True ‘End of History’?

On February 25, a discussion titled “The Donroe Doctrine: Trump and Greenland” took place at the Moscow venue of the Valdai Club. In the lead-up to the discussion, Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, highlighted the increasing importance of the Arctic region in global affairs—which is accompanied by its intensifying militarization. Trump’s claims to Greenland are part of this larger phenomenon, and they became the subject of the Valdai discussion. Participants were invited to share their views on events surrounding Greenland, the economic, strategic, and diplomatic consequences for the trans-Atlantic alliance and the international system as a whole.

25.02.2026

Opinion

Values of the World Majority

Trump, Greenland and the Reaction in the Nordic Countries

The US has had a longstanding interest in acquiring Greenland. After the purchase of Alaska in 1867, US Secretary of State William Seward proposed purchasing Greenland from Denmark. In 1910, the US yet again suggested acquiring Greenland through a land swap with Denmark, in return for offering the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palawan. The appeal was Greenland’s strategic position in the North Atlantic and its resource potential.

Glenn Diesen

25.02.2026