France has cautioned Donald Trump against posing a threat to the “sovereign borders” of the European Union after US president-elect said he would not rule out military action to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, was clear on 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 didn’t believe the US would invade Greenland, but he did say, “we have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest.”
In a press conference, Trump avoided saying that he wouldn’t take the country through military force to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal. At the same time, he indicated he could use “economic force” to make Canada a part of the United States. In response to his comments, Donald Trump Jr. made a private visit to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. He spent some time there but didn’t go to meet the officials.
This will be a reiteration of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede’s reiteration when they said Greenland was never for sale. According to Frederiksen, there was much support from the people of Greenland in the belief that Greenland is not for sale and won’t be in the future either. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.
Greenland, the world’s largest island with a population of about 57,000, has had the right to hold a referendum on its independence since 2009. Egede, who belongs to the pro-independence Community of the People (IA) party, also said, “Greenland is not for sale and will never be for sale.
Responding to the threats, Egede, who had a meeting scheduled with the Danish king, described the statements as “serious statements,” and said, “The things that have come out, I think, are some serious statements. But we’ll take it from there.
Moreover, Barrot raised his concern over the threats of Elon Musk towards European leaders, especially Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He called on the European Commission to take action against these threats, saying, “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.”
