France has begun discussing the deployment of troops to Greenland with Denmark in response to repeated threats by US President Donald Trump to annex the Danish territory, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
In an interview with the French radio station Sud Radio, Barrot mentioned that France had started talking with Denmark about the deployment of troops to Greenland. This comes at a time when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is on a whirlwind tour of European capitals, seeking support from allies in dealing with Trump’s expansion plans.
In Paris, Frederiksen met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, who reiterated France’s position that “Europe’s sovereign borders” should not be questioned. Macron reaffirmed this in talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Frederiksen. In Paris, there is a sense of discontent that von der Leyen has only responded mildly to Trump’s threats on the EU level.
Macron’s former European Affairs Minister, EU lawmaker Nathalie Loiseau, had earlier proposed deploying EU troops to Greenland to build a deterrent against Trump’s threats. The French government’s spokesperson, Sophie Primas, criticized Trump’s actions as “a form of imperialism” against which the EU must stand united. Macron has already instructed his own military to prepare for the possibility of “ice melting leading to new geopolitical situations.”
Denmark, on the other hand, is reportedly asking its EU and NATO partners not to make public comments on Trump’s Greenland threats, in an effort to prevent further escalation.
Currently, Frederiksen, whose politics are often marked by a skeptical approach to the EU, is showing a strong European stance in the crisis. “I can’t imagine a time when European unity was more important” she said on Sunday, after Trump reiterated his desire to own Greenland.