Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where it is Rishi’s turn to fly solo-ish (with help from our colleague Christina Lu) while John takes a well-earned vacation.
Speaking of flying, U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos may have been slightly delayed by an apparent malfunction on Air Force One, but he stunned attendees at the Swiss mountain resort town all the same.
On that note, here’s what’s on tap for the day: Trump makes a confusing Greenland announcement, his controversial Board of Peace takes shape, and an Israeli strike kills more journalists.
In what has become a familiar pattern, Trump (dramatically) escalated his campaign to acquire Greenland only to (abruptly) de-escalate hours later—a cycle that has been dubbed “TACO,” or Trump Always Chickens Out.
The de-escalation came in a late-night Truth Social post, in which Trump said he had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region” in a “very productive meeting” with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Trump said he would hold off on his threatened tariffs against European countries that had actively opposed his bid to take Greenland pending the proposed deal, which the U.S. president said would be great “if consummated.” U.S. officials will also be discussing the “Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland,” he added, referring to his proposed multibillion-dollar missile defense system for the United States.
The about-face came after Trump riffed extensively about Greenland during an hourlong speech in Davos, saying he wanted the United States to be granted “right, title, and ownership” over the Danish territory. While he said he would not use force to acquire what he repeatedly described as a “piece of ice” (and also as Iceland), he warned European countries that “you can say no and we will remember.”
With that one-two punch out of the way, Trump quickly moved on to other Davos agenda items, establishing his controversial “Board of Peace” for Gaza (more on that below) and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But Greenland remains unsettled, with unanswered questions.
What’s in the deal? According to multipleinitial reports, Trump’s talk with Rutte focused largely on the possibility of renegotiating a 1951 treaty between Denmark and the United States that allows U.S. troops in Greenland—which Trump obliquely referenced in his speech when he said Washington had been “stupid” to give the territory back to Denmark after World War II.
Other provisions reportedly discussed include an enhanced NATO presence in the Arctic and U.S. access to Greenland’s critical mineral reserves, but details on both remain unclear. The framework deal is reportedly still only verbal, with no written document having yet been prepared.
Who is making the deal? While Rutte (of “daddy” fame) has continued to play the role of Europe’s chief Trump-whisperer for months, Greenland technically isn’t his to negotiate over. “There has been no negotiation with NATO yesterday about our sovereignty,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday. “That is a matter for us alone, and we do not intend to abandon the very basic principles of democracy and politics.”
What happens next? Frederiksen did acknowledge that Denmark continues to “engage in dialogue with the Americans about security” and that the two sides are on the same page about wanting to prevent more Russian and Chinese investment in Greenland. Danish officials will now negotiate with Washington, which Trump said will be represented by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, among others.
But Trump is already spinning his off-ramp into a victory lap. “Essentially it’s total access—there’s no end, there’s no time limit,” he told Fox Business. “I’m not going to have to pay anything.”
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
Board of Peace. Trump’s so-called Board of Peace has officially taken shape. The U.S. president has now asked dozens of world leaders to take part in his invite-only coalition, which he first floated last September as part of his Gaza peace plan but has since become far more expansive in its scope and objectives. The board’s charter now calls on the coalition to “secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict” and champions a “more nimble and effective international peace-building body,” the New York Timesreported.
“This isn’t the United States. This is for the world,” Trump declared at a charter signing ceremony at Davos on Thursday. “I think we can spread it out to other things as we succeed in Gaza.”
Under the charter, Trump will be the Board of Peace’s inaugural chairman, with veto power over most decisions. Member states are restricted to three-year terms (“subject to renewal by the Chairman”) unless they cough up $1 billion in the first year to secure a permanent seat.
The coalition’s increasingly broad mandate has stoked concerns that Trump is attempting to sideline the United Nations, which the U.S. leader has long lambasted.
But despite the flurry of invitations, not everyone is so eager to join the initiative. At the signing ceremony, Trump was joined by only 19 world leaders, while many other countries have either said they are reviewing the proposal or outright rejected the U.S. leader’s invitation.—Christina Lu
Deadly Israeli strike. Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two children, three journalists, and one woman, according to Gaza health officials. The three journalists were on a “humanitarian journalistic mission to document and portray the suffering of civilians in displacement camps” when their civilian vehicle was directly struck, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, a labor union. The Israeli military has claimed that the journalists were using a drone “affiliated with Hamas” and said it was examining the incident.
Israel has enforced a near-total ban on foreign journalists in Gaza, even now with the cease-fire in place. Still, the war in Gaza has been the “deadliest conflict for reporters in modern history,” as SitRep co-author John Haltiwanger has previously reported. “[R]ights groups and monitors warn that Israel is intentionally targeting journalists in Gaza—a charge the Israeli government denies—and doing so without repercussions in a manner that sets a dangerous precedent for the entire world,” he wrote last August.—CL
Firefighters walk past a damaged train car as they work at the site where at least one person died and five were seriously injured when a regional service train collided with a collapsed wall near Barcelona on Jan. 21, days after a crash between two trains in southern Spain killed at least 45 people and injured more than 120.Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images
Monday, Jan. 26: Germany hosts the North Sea Summit.
Tuesday, Jan. 27: The EU-India Summit takes place in New Delhi.
The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement goes into effect.
Wednesday, Jan. 28: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at the Latin America and Caribbean International Economic Forum.
Rubio testifies in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela.
Friday, Jan. 30: The short-term continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government is slated to expire.
3,117—the Iranian government’s first published death toll from weeks of protests, though independent groups as well as the U.N. have estimated the number to be far higher.
“Mr. President, fuck off.”
—Danish Member of the European Parliament Anders Vistisen slamming Trump’s attempt to take over Greenland.
- What Spheres of Influence Are—and Aren’tby Stephen M. Walt
- The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Foreign Policyby A. Wess Mitchell
- In Davos, a Tale of Two Speechesby Ravi Agrawal
French President Emmanuel Macron made more headlines for his accessories than his speech at Davos, where he sported a pair of Top Gun– or Joe Biden-esque Aviator sunglasses—depending on which social media posts you read—but the fashionable choice was actually a medical necessity, apparently.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!