Germany joins France in warning Trump against threatening Greenland

Germany has joined France in warning Donald Trump against threatening the European Union’s ‘sovereign borders’ after the president-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland. Trump has ramped up calls for the US to either purchase or stage a takeover of the ‘strategically located’ nation, which is an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark. Denmark is also a member of defense bloc NATO, along with France and Germany. The rebukes came as Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte Bourup Egede, flew to Denmark to meet with its king for emergency talks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said ‘the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country… no matter whether it’s a very small one or a very powerful one.’ Scholz said there was a ‘certain incomprehension’ about statements coming from the incoming US administration. ‘The principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country no matter whether that’s in the east or the west.’

Scholz stressed that ‘NATO is the most important instrument for our defense and a central of the transatlantic relationship’. ‘There is no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be, attack its sovereign borders,’ French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the France Inter radio station earlier today.

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’. ‘We are a strong continent, we need to strengthen ourselves further,’ he went on, warning that Europe needs to ‘wake up’ to the reality of an increasingly insecure world and ‘reinforce ourselves, militarily, in competition’. Barrot added that he believed that the United States is ‘inherently not imperialistic’ and said he ‘did not believe’ that it is changing.

Trump has questioned whether Denmark has any legal right or ‘interest’ to Greenland, stating yesterday: ‘People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security.’ Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark and has been part of it for 600 years. The Danish government has control of Greenland’s foreign and economic policy, but the territory left the EU in 1985 following a referendum.

The US has a military base there given its strategic position as the shortest oceanic crossroads between North America and Europe. The island also has a large supply of valuable rare earth minerals – like uranium – not found in the US. Trump declined on Monday to rule out military or economic action as part of his avowed desire to have the US seize control of Greenland, as well as the Panama Canal. He has also argued for a takeover of Canada.

During a rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked Trump if could assure he would not use ‘military or economic coercion’ to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland. ‘I’m not going to commit to that,’ Trump said, when asked if he would rule out the use of the military. ‘It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country.’ He added, ‘We need Greenland for national security purposes.’ He made the comments as his son Donald Trump Jr. made a trip there to shoot social media content.

Trump Jr. took his father’s Trump Force One jet to the country. The president-elect called into his son’s phone to speak to locals when Jr. was in a cafe. He said that if Denmark tried to hold onto Greenland, they would face heavy economic tariffs. He also contested, without any evidence, that the people of Greenland would vote to become a part of the United States. Denmark, during Trump’s first term, rejected the then-president’s offer to buy the island, a position the country has made clear it will maintain.

Greenland, with a population of 57,000, controls most of its own domestic affairs as a semi-sovereign territory under the Danish realm. Its relations with Denmark have lately been strained over allegations of historic mistreatment of Greenlanders under colonial rule. Egede has stated that the island is not for sale, while in his New Year speech he stepped up a push for independence from Denmark. Denmark also says the territory is not for sale, and that its fate can be decided only by Greenlanders. In 2019, Trump canceled a planned visit to Denmark after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuffed his suggestion of the US purchasing Greenland.

Trump has also taken aim at Canada in recent days, arguing that he believed the US’ northern neighbor should become the country’s 51st state. Trump said that while he would not invade Canada, combining it with the US would result in an ‘economic force’ that would ‘really be something’. He also mocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by calling him ‘governor’ and shared a map showing the two countries without borders emblazoned with an American flag. He repeated his argument that the country is economically dependent on the United States. The US is Canada’s biggest trading partner.

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