‘We must stand together’: European leaders warn Trump over Greenland threat

After the US President-elect refused to allow military action to seize Greenland, European officials have warned Donald Trump against threatening “sovereign borders.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who criticized the remarks on Wednesday, said that no matter how powerful they may be, every nation is bound by the principle of inviolability of borders.

He added Trump’s statements a day earlier had sparked “notable incomprehension” among other European Union leaders he had spoken with.

“Borders must not be moved by force. “Every nation, whether in the East or the West, is subject to this principle,” Scholz later wrote on X.

There is concern about recent US statements in discussions with our European partners. It is clear: We must stand together”.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, also weighed in on Wednesday, saying Greenland was “European territory” and there was “no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be … attack its sovereign borders”.

While EU officials largely avoided jumping into the pit, a spokesperson did confirm to reporters that Greenland was covered by a mutual defense agreement that required its members to assist one another in the event of an attack.

However, according to Paula Pinho, a spokesperson for the EU Commission, “we are actually talking about something that is incredibly theoretical and on which we won’t want to go into more detail.”

“We need Greenland,” the statement read.

The unsettling comes after Trump once more made a statement on Tuesday that he wanted the US to retake control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, a major waterway in Latin America, in 1999.

When a reporter asked him if he would oppose using military force or economic coercion to impose himself, Trump responded, “I’m not going to commit to that.”

“We need Greenland for national security purposes”, Trump later said, nodding to the island’s strategic position in the Arctic, where Russia, China and the US have jockeyed for control in recent years.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, French government spokesperson Sophie Primas warned there was a “form of imperialism” in Trump’s statements.

“Today, we are seeing the rise in blocs, we can see this as a form of imperialism, which materialises itself in the statements that we saw from Mr Trump on the annexation of an entire territory”, she said.

“More than ever, we and our European partners need to be conscious, to get away from a form of naivety, to protect ourselves, to rearm”, she added.

For his part, Greenland’s Prime Minister, Mute Bourup Egede has not weighed in on the US president-elect’s most recent comments. However, Mute, who supports full independence from Denmark, has previously opposed Trump’s past suggestions of purchasing the island.

Officials in Denmark, meanwhile, struck a more conciliatory tone than their European counterparts.

Copenhagen is “open to a dialogue with the Americans about how we can work together, possibly even more closely than we already do, to ensure that American ambitions are realized,” according to foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

However, he also ruled out the island becoming part of the US.

Mexican America

The broad expansionist agenda of Trump, who takes office on January 20, also raged Europeans, among others.

On Wednesday, Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc condemned the president-elect for repeatedly saying he would seek to make Canada the “51st” state. On Wednesday, Trump said he was open to using economic coercion to make that happen.

“The joke is over”, said LeBlanc, who serves as the point person for US-Canada relations.

“It’s a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen”.

Meanwhile, Mexico responded to Trump’s stated desire to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.

In honor of a historical name that was used in an early map of the area, President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested that Mexico should be renamed “Mexican America” throughout all of North America, including the United States.

Source: Aljazeera