A senior European leader has issued a chilling warning that an internal NATO conflict over Greenland would spell catastrophe for the Western world, as tensions mount over Donald Trump‘s bid to claim the Arctic island.

Poland‘s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday that his country would not send soldiers to Greenland, making clear that any aggression between NATO allies would shatter the foundations of global security.

‘An attempt to take over (part of) a NATO member state by another NATO member state would be a political disaster,’ Tusk told a press conference.

‘It would be the end of the world as we know it, which guaranteed a world based on NATO solidarity, which held back the evil forces associated with communist terror or other forms of aggression.’

His comments come amid growing unease across Europe after the US President renewed his long-running claim that Greenland is vital to American security, and suggested Washington could take drastic action to secure it.

Trump has repeatedly argued that the US must own Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from gaining a strategic foothold in the Arctic.

He has insisted that all options remain on the table to ensure control of the mineral-rich island, declaring that if Washington does not act, ‘China or Russia will’.

The rhetoric has sent shockwaves through NATO, an alliance that has underpinned Western society since World War II.

Trump’s statements have already put unprecedented strain on relations between allies, raising fears of a crisis that was unthinkable just years ago.

As concerns escalated this week, military personnel from France and Germany headed to Greenland on Thursday, joining Denmark and other allies in a series of exercises aimed at reinforcing the island’s security.

Germany’s defence ministry said the reconnaissance mission by several European NATO members aims ‘to explore options for ensuring security in light of Russian and Chinese threats in the Arctic’.

The deployments were announced shortly after a meeting between US, Danish, and Greenlandic officials in Washington failed to resolve what officials described as a ‘fundamental disagreement’ over the future of the island coveted by Trump.

France, Sweden, Germany, and Norway confirmed on Wednesday that they would deploy military personnel to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, as part of the mission.

A British military officer is also among the international force of European troops being deployed to Greenland.

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