Fri 9 Jan 2026 11.15 EST First published on Fri 9 Jan 2026 04.29 EST Share Starmer discusses boosting anti-Russia Nato defences around Greenland in call with Macron and Merz Although Keir Starmer, and other European leaders, have pushed back with modest firmness against Donald Trump’s talk of annexing Greenland, the US president’s sabre-rattling has clearly had some impact on Nato allies. Yesterday Starmer spoke by phone to his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen (“Both leaders agreed on the importance of deterring Russian aggression in the High North and that Nato should step up in the area to protect Euro-Atlantic interests,” No 10 said), to the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte (“They agreed that more needed to be done to deter Russia in the High North and welcomed discussions on how allies could further protect the region from increasing Russian threats”), and to Donald Trump (“The leaders discussed Euro-Atlantic security and agreed on the need to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia in the High North”). And today there has been a further call covering this topic. Starmer has held a joint call with his two most important European allies, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, and the talk about beefing up Nato security around Greenland has continued. In its readout, No 10 said: The leaders began by reflecting on the strong unity in support of Ukraine at Tuesday’s meeting, and the good progress made on next steps. They welcomed the ongoing close coordination with the US to secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. Russia’s ongoing attacks in Ukraine, including of the use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine this morning, were escalatory and unacceptable, the leaders agreed. It was clear Russia was using fabricated allegations to justify the attack, the prime minister added. The leaders then turned to security in the high north. The prime minister said the Nato alliance needed to step up in the region to deter adversaries such as Russia. Turning to the situation in Iran, the leaders agreed on the need for close coordination as events evolved and the prime minister reiterated his support for those who exercised their right to peaceful protest. The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon. High north may sound like something from Game of Thrones, but it is a term used a lot in military circles to describe the Arctic region. Here is an MoD policy paper about it. What is not clear, though, is whether Trump’s obsession with Greenland is really related to security (in which case extra Nato measures might assuage his concerns), or whether it is really about mineral resources and territory. Anne Applebaum, the historian, journalist and dictator expert, recently said the Danes think that, for Trump, it is just about making the US bigger. A year ago, I went to Copenhagen to write about the political crisis Trump had created over Greenland. Danes told me that because the US can already do whatever it wants on the island, they had come to a conclusion: Trump just wants the US to look bigger on a map View image in fullscreen