U.S. President Donald Trump has assured Denmark and other world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, that he has no intention of using military force to acquire a Danish territory, Greenland, that caused disagreements between Mr Trump and European leaders lately.

Mr Trump on Wednesday allayed tensions at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in an hour-long speech that the U.S. quest to acquire Greenland was for security reasons rather than the territory’s rare-earth as mostly assumed.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable,” Mr Trump said. “But I won’t do that. That’s probably the biggest statement, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”

Mr Trump said he’s open to negotiations that would pave way for U.S.’ acquisition of Greenland and was willing to deploy more trade sanctions to get his way.

The U.S. leader last week imposed 10 per cent tariff on goods coming from Denmark, France, Finland, UK, Switzerland to send a strong message about his intent.

According to him, only the U.S. had the capacity to defend the territory.

Chair of the defence committee in Denmark’s Parliament, Rasmus Jarlov, who had initially braced for the worst, said Mr Trump’s statement was a relief.

“I think we’ve heard a lot worse,” The New York Times cited Mr Jarlov as saying in an interview. “I’m glad he’s ruling out military force. I didn’t see in his remarks today an escalation. He insists he wants Greenland, but that’s not new. Of course, we still insist that we are not handing over Greenland.”

The Republican president had posted entreaties from French president Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary asking him to abandon his plan to buy Greenland.