What happens if US-EU disagreement over Greenland continues? WEF Prez Brende decodes

Alliances like NATO will just have to deal with all the complexities at the same time, said World Economic Forum President Borge Brende. He said some crisis or another has always been the point of focus. 

Speaking to Business Today on the first day of WEF Davos 2026, Brende said that the old order – the one of alliances – is not disrupted. “Still 75 per cent of the global trade happens under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) rules and regulations. Maybe new deals are not multilateral,” he said.

“I think on NATO and the relationship between the EU and the US, it is particularly delicate this week,” said Brende. US President Donald Trump will address the Davos crowd on Wednesday – at a time when he has threatened to impose tariffs on some European countries unless the US is allowed to buy Greenland. He will be accompanied by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Meanwhile, national security advisers from a number of countries are due to meet, with Greenland among the subjects on the agenda. Greenland was added to the agenda of the previously scheduled meeting since Trump’s threats. Calling Trump’s move wrong, European leaders are now studying a number of possible trade retaliation measures. 

Despite the face-off, Brende said he thinks the alliance would continue. “I think they will find a way. But it is hard to see what the path will be just now. We need to see that the tensions go down…sometimes the negotiation tactics are also to go very far out there, then there will be something in the middle later on,” said optimistically. 

“Now this is having a lot of focus, last week it was Venezuela, before it was Iran, then it was Gaza and before that it was Ukraine, and then there was also East Asia. We just have to deal with all these complexities at the same time and hopefully we will not see an escalation to a big war. That is not likely but that’s the most dramatic scenario,” he said.

Watch the conversation here: