Donald Trump’s proposed takeover of Greenland is causing rifts inside Nato that has resulted in UK officials withholding intelligence sharing with the US.
Sources from both sides of the Atlantic warn that the US-UK security relationship is at its lowest ebb since the 1950s, putting European security at risk.
For more than 70 years, the special relationship between the Britain and America has been a cornerstone of the Western alliance, with intelligence and military officials working together to combat all manner of threats, from direct war to clandestine operations.
But the US President’s ambitions to acquire Greenland for national security reasons is destroying trust and tearing long-standing agreements apart, sources have said.
A senior Nato insider told The i Paper: “It is creating tensions and distrust between European and US colleagues in Nato.
“American colleagues have come to me and said sorry, one has apologised on behalf of his nation.”
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said staff are “not talking openly” anymore amid growing concerns that information will make its way back to Trump and could be used in an attempt to take Greenland by force.
“We used to get beers together but now its really strange. I have been fighting in Iraq and Afghan side-by-side with Americans. This is very disruptive in a way that I have never thought of before because it is so unrealistic and surprising.”
They added that some Nato staff felt the country “we all looked up to and appreciate” has now “stabbed us in the back”.
Delegations from the UK, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland have been in Nuuk, the island’s capital, drawing up plans for an allied military presence to send a message to Trump, who has refused to rule out seizing Greenland.
The US President has vowed to follow through on his threat to impose fresh tariffs on its eight Nato allies if they stand in the way of his proposed takeover.
Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday that he intended to continue the UK’s close intelligence-sharing relationship with the US despite Trump’s threats.
“We are involved on a daily basis,” he said, adding it is “the closest relationship between any two countries in the world – and that keeps us safe in ways that I can’t explain to you”.
Biggest test since the Suez Crisis
A UK intelligence source called the degradation of ties between the White House and its allies “unprecedented” and warned that the “individual political turmoil” caused by Trump would impact intelligence relationships.
A source in US intelligence said the US President’s actions were “alliance breaking moves which could thoroughly alter the global order for decades to come”.
The open sharing of intelligence between the two countries dates back to the secret 1941 Sinkov Mission which involved the exchange of information on Japanese and German ciphers at Bletchley Park before the US officially entered the Second World War.
Since then, the US and UK continue to share intelligence through the UKUSA Agreement, often referred to as “Two Eyes”, and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance involving Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The UK intelligence source spoken to by this paper said that Trump’s latest threats had pushed the idea that the UK was no longer a Two Eyes ally, and rather “just part of Europe”.
Dr Dan Lomas, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Nottingham, said Trump’s second term in Washington was having a “destabilising effect” on the trust between intelligence agencies which has the potential to become a “long-term problem”.
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It will force the UK to “double down” and strengthen partnerships with European allies in response, he added.
Rory Cormac, professor of international relations at the University of Nottingham, said you have to go back to the 1956 Suez Crisis for a time when US relations with the UK were under such strain.
“Claims of specialness should always be taken with a pinch of salt but this is certainly the biggest test the UK-US intelligence relationship in recent years,” he said. “You’d have to go back to Suez, which, for now, trumps this crisis.”
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