Greenland dispute is 'wake-up call' for Europe: Macron / Photo: Ludovic MARIN - AFP
Greenland dispute is 'wake-up call' for Europe: Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday a standoff with the United States over Greenland was "a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe" as he hosted the leaders of Denmark and the Danish autonomous territory for talks.
European powers have sought to join forces after US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize strategically-located and mineral-rich Greenland.
Speaking alongside the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Macron said the "awakening" must focus "on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, and on the fight against global warming."
He reaffirmed to Frederiksen and Nielsen France's solidarity and "its commitment to your sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the United Nations Charter," he added, expressing his support for increased NATO engagement in the Arctic.
"Greenland is not for sale, nor is it up for grabs. The Greenlanders will decide their own future," Macron said in the indigenous Greenlandic language.
He then switched to Danish, telling the prime minister that France would "be side-by-side" with the "Kingdom of Denmark".
In a gesture of solidarity, a modest number of military personnel were deployed to Greenland this month by a handful of European countries including France.
After European pushback, Trump backed down on the threat to take Greenland, which is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, by military force.
On Tuesday, the French navy flagship, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, set course for the Atlantic for pre-planned military exercises. Sources familiar with the matter told AFP that the carrier was being deployed to the North Atlantic.
- 'Greenland will never forget' -
Frederiksen said that recent weeks had shown that Europe can stand up for itself.
"The world order as we have known it is under pressure, it's changing rapidly," she added. "Maybe it's gone."
Nielsen, 34, thanked Macron for "standing by us without hesitation."
"We will in Greenland never forget it," he said.
He said cooperation with France was not only about Greenland.
"It goes beyond Greenland," Nielsen said. "For us, this is about the values in the world, our democracy."
Speaking earlier Wednesday, Frederiksen said that Europe needed to improve its defences "now" to become less reliant on the United States for military protection.
On Monday, NATO chief Mark Rutte told EU lawmakers to "keep on dreaming" if they thought Europe could defend itself without the United States.
In response to Rutte's comments, Frederiksen conceded it would be "extremely difficult" for Europe to defend itself now.
"Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US," she said at Sciences Po university.
"But I think we're able to do more than what is being said publicly right now."
As for a 2035 target to ramp up spending on NATO, she said: "I'm sorry to say it would be too late."
"I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing."
NATO members committed to raising defence and security spending last year to five percent of their economic output, following on from an earlier target of two percent by 2024, after pressure from the US government.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted Frederiksen in Berlin and assured her of Germany's solidarity.
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J.Morris--RTC
