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18 hours ago
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France has warned Donald Trump against threatening the “sovereign borders” of the European Union after the US president-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio: “There is no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be, attack its sovereign borders.”
He added that while he did not believe the US “would invade” Greenland “we have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest”.
In an hour-long press conference on Tuesday, Trump refused to rule out using military force to take the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggested he intended to use “economic force” to make Canada part of the US.
His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, flew to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, on what he called a private visit shortly after the comments. He remained a few hours and said he did not intend to meet government officials.
Last month Trump, who takes office on 20 January, said US control of Greenland was an “absolute necessity” for America’s “economic security”.
Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom Denmark but granted home rule in 1979, has informed Trump it is not for sale.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, and Múte Egede, Greenland’s PM, have both said it is for Greenlanders to decide their future.
“There is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either. Greenland belongs to the Greelanders,” Frederiksen said.
Greenland, which has a population of about 57,000 people, is the world’s biggest island. Since 2009 it has had the right to hold a referendum to decide whether it wishes to be independent. Egede is a member of the pro-independence Community of the People (IA) party.
Egede said last week Greenland “is not for sale and will never be for sale”.
Barrot also urged the EU to resist threats from Elon Musk against a number of European leaders, notably Germany’s social democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
“If the European Commission does not know how to protect us against this interference or these threats of interference then it must give member states, including France, the ability to protect itself,” Barrot said.
Egede is scheduled to meet the Danish king on Wednesday at 2pm Danish time where it is likely that Trump’s threats and advances on Greenland will be discussed.
Arriving at Copenhagen airport late on Tuesday night, Egede responded to Trump’s refusal to rule out military or economic coercion in order to gain control of Greenland, saying they were “serious statements”.
“The things that have come out, I think, are some serious statements. But we’ll take it from there,” he told DR.
His original meeting with the king, scheduled for earlier in the day, was cancelled last-minute, with Egede’s office citing “diary gymnastics”. But Donald Trump Jr’s visit to Greenland on Tuesday led to the cancellation being viewed by some as a snub and embarrassment to the king, who recently changed the royal coat of arms to more prominently include symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are both autonomous territories of Denmark.
