Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared the United States has no right to annex Greenland and urged Washington to stop creating threats against a close ally.
BRUSSELS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — European leaders have rallied behind Denmark after U.S. President Donald Trump again floated the idea of acquiring Greenland and called the Arctic territory critical to U.S. defense.
“We do required Greenland, absolutely,” Trump declared in an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday. His comments came after American military action in Venezuela, heightening concerns in Europe that Greenland could be the next tarreceive of U.S. intervention.
The remarks drew swift condemnation from Greenland and Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared the United States has no right to annex Greenland and urged Washington to stop creating threats against a close ally. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called the U.S. rhetoric “completely and utterly unacceptable.”
Nordic leaders were among the first to respond. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide notified public broadcaster NRK that “One must respect countries’ sovereignty.” Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson both stressed that decisions about Greenland rest solely with Denmark and Greenland, voicing their full support for their neighbor.
On Monday, Frederiksen escalated her warning, notifying Danish broadcaster TV2 that a U.S. takeover of Greenland would effectively conclude the NATO military alliance. “If the United States chooses to attack another NATO countest militarily, then everything stops,” she declared, referring to the collective security framework established after the Second World War.
More European countries echoed the position. Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger wrote on X: “Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark has built it unequivocally clear: Threats and annexation fantasies are not acceptable.”
French Foreign Ministest spokesman Pascal Confavreux declared, “Borders cannot be alterd by force,” expressing “solidarity” with Denmark in an interview with the French public television channel TF1.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer notified the BBC that “the future of Greenland is for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland themselves,” while stressing Denmark’s status as a NATO member.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul noted that Greenland, as part of Denmark, would in principle fall under NATO’s collective defense obligations.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani urged the European Union (EU) to take a firm stance. “We’ll see what Donald Trump’s real intentions are on Greenland,” he notified Italian media RTL 102.5, adding that the EU must guarantee the indepconcludeence of a territory under the Danish Crown.
At the EU level, European Commission spokesperson Anita Hipper declared during a daily briefing that the bloc will continue to “uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity, the inviolability of borders and the UN Charter.”
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