What the U.S. Could Gain in Greenland Talks

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Luke Vargas (0:33)

Details of a potential Greenland deal take shape. We'll get the latest from Davos after President Trump changed his tack in his push for the island. Plus, ICE targets Maine, setting up another showdown with local officials.

Mark Dion (0:47)

Our communities feel anxious and fearful. They see this action as unpredictable and a threat to their families.

Luke Vargas (0:56)

And Southwest scores an upgrade in our annual airline rankings. It's Thursday, January 22nd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

We're learning more about what future negotiations over Greenland could look like. A day after, President Trump backed off of threats to forcibly acquire the island and called off tariffs he'd promised on European nations. While the details are still in flux, European officials tell us they could involve Denmark allowing American troops to be stationed at its Greenland bases, Europe boosting Arctic security, and the US potentially getting a right of first refusal on investments in Greenland's mineral resources. The journal's Gyorgy Konchev told me that last item could be a key one for the White House.

Gyorgy Konchev (1:52)

The idea is to prevent Russia or China from gaining a foothold, whether it's economically or militarily. The US would have this initial preemptive ability to block investments and moves by Russian or Chinese entities in Greenland's kind of mining sector, which is important because the island is endowed with huge geological wealth, has 25 out of the European Union, 34 critical raw materials. It is, of course, a different matter of how fast this can be tapped and how fast this actually can be exploited. The terrain is very difficult. It's going to take a lot of investment and time.

Luke Vargas (2:29)

Denmark's foreign minister casts Trump's about face as a relief, saying that yesterday was, quote, ending on a better note than it began, though others, like Finland's president, Alexander Stubb, speaking here with our Yaroslav Trofimov, said that any relief was temporary.

Alexander Stubb (2:46)

I obviously don't think that the situation is over, but the worst pressure has been diffused. So we are in the bad but not in the ugly stage. We're not going to go in the ugly stage. We're now somewhere between the good and the bad.

Luke Vargas (2:59)

So how did the US U-turn on Greenland go down at Davos? And what else happened at a gathering that was meant to tackle a slew of global economic challenges? Who better to ask than Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker, who's in Davos this morning? Emma, I think fair to say there was a lot of hand-wringing this week over Trump's push for Greenland and now relief that war seems to have been averted. A roller coaster certainly for those of us watching from afar, but I'm curious how it all went down with those inside the Davos bubble.

Emma Tucker (3:27)

Yes, war was indeed averted. Whether or not this acted as a huge distraction to all the other issues on the agenda here, if I'm being honest, Luke, I think most of the CEOs and attendees here secretly they rather like being where the action is. There's a sort of excitement to being at the place that everybody is talking about. I think so long as they can still have their dinners and their drinks parties and can connect and meet new contacts and sort of renew old friendships and sort of do the business wheeler dealering, so long as that's unimpeded, then they're happy.

Luke Vargas (4:02)

All right. So the arrival of the US delegation making for some good dinner theater, it sounds like. And yet we learned a lot this week, did we not, about America's role in the world and how other countries are positioning themselves in relation to it.

Emma Tucker (4:13)

Interestingly, the mood between the US CEOs and European CEOs was so marked. And I think this is a reflection of the fact that America is indisputably the economic powerhouse of the world and the West in particular. American CEOs are excited about what that means for them, for the growth of their companies, for the future. Whereas, the Europeans, there was this sort of realization that it's not enough just to talk about Europe defending itself or activating higher growth levels in Europe, that they really now have to put their money where their mouth is.