French President Emmanuel Macron criticised US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland as he made a visit to the Danish autonomous territory.
On June 15, he said: “That’s not what allies do,” as he arrived in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.
Macron was the first foreign head of state to visit the vast territory – at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Arctic – since Trump’s annexation threats.
Trump, since returning to the White House in January, has repeatedly said the US needed the strategically located, resource-rich island for security reasons and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.
Denmark has also repeatedly stressed that Greenland “is not for sale”.
Macron said his visit was aimed at conveying “France’s and the European Union’s solidarity” for “the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and dozens of Greenlanders waving their territory’s red-and-white flags, were on hand to greet the French President.
Macron kicked off his trip with talks on board a Danish frigate with Frederiksen and Nielsen.
He then visited a glacier to see first-hand the effects of global warming.
Macron’s trip to Greenland was “a signal in itself, made at the request of Danish and Greenlandic authorities”, his office said ahead of the trip.
The Danish invitation to Macron contrasted sharply with the reception granted to US Vice President JD Vance, whose one-day trip to Greenland in March was seen as a provocation by both Nuuk and Copenhagen.
During his visit to the US Pituffik military base, Vance castigated Denmark for not having “done a good job by the people of Greenland”, alleging the Danes had neglected security.
The Pituffik base was an essential part of Washington’s missile defence infrastructure, its location putting it on the shortest route for missiles fired from Russia at the US.
Polls indicated that the vast majority of Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants wanted to become independent from Denmark – but did not wish to become part of the US.
Unlike Denmark, Greenland was not part of the EU but was on the list of Overseas Territories associated with the bloc.
Greenland was a European territory and it was normal that Europe and France showed their interest, French Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrot told RTL radio on June 15 when asked about Macron’s visit, according to Reuters.
The entire EU was in agreement that Greenland was “not to be sold, not to be taken”, Macron said, AFP reported.
Speaking during a visit to the vast Arctic island, Macron stressed Greenland’s “territorial integrity”. France was ready to hold joint military exercises with Arctic countries, under the framework of NATO and the NB8 Nordic and Baltic countries, to ensure security in the region, he added.
The Arctic has gained geo-strategic importance as the race for rare earths heated up and as melting ice caused by global warming opened up new shipping routes.
Macron said he wanted the EU to “accelerate the implementation” of a partnership with Greenland on minerals including “strategic” metals.
The “strategic partnership” signed in 2023 “must allow us to develop sustainable value chains in the strategic raw materials sector”, he told reporters.
During his visit, Macron was to discuss Arctic security and how to include the territory in “European action” to contribute to its development, while “respecting its sovereignty”, his office said.
Copenhagen in January announced a $2 billion (€1.7 billion) plan to boost its military presence in the Arctic region.
NATO also planned to set up a Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Norway above the Arctic Circle, as Russia aimed to bolster its military presence in the region.
Regarding global warming, the French President later took a helicopter tour of a glacier on Mount Nunatarsuaq, about 30 kilometres from Nuuk.
The Arctic was warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature. Greenland’s ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the historical average during a May 15-21 heatwave, a recent report showed.
From the helicopter, Macron was able to observe a sea of fissured ice as far as the eye could see. He also took a walking tour on a rocky, grey stretch of land until recently covered in ice, a changing landscape that was having a major impact on local communities, the Greenlandic Prime Minister explained.
Measuring 9,000 square kilometres, the Nuuk fjord system was one of the biggest in the world.
France intended to “massively reinvest in the knowledge of these ecosystems”, following in the footsteps of famed French explorer Paul-Emile Victor who carried out multiple expeditions to Greenland, Macron’s office said.
Greenlandic authorities recently designated Victor’s hut, built in 1950 in Quervain Bay in the north, as a historic structure.
