European leaders unite behind Denmark, insist Greenland “belongs to its people”

France has announced that it is working with its allies on possible responses should the United States move to invade Greenland, as tensions continue to rise over Donald Trump’s increasingly explicit threats to take control of the Arctic territory.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the matter will be addressed during his meeting with the German and Polish foreign ministers on January 7. “We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners,” he told French radio, as per foreign media.

Denmark has warned that if the US — a NATO ally — were to invade or seize Greenland, which is part of the Danish kingdom, such an action would effectively mark the end of the western military alliance and the security architecture established after the Second World War.

On Tuesday, January 6, after one of Trump’s senior aides suggested that Washington might be prepared to take the territory by force, European leaders expressed rare unified support for Denmark and Greenland. They issued a strong message to Washington, declaring that Greenland “belongs to its people.”

However, on Tuesday night, the White House stated that Trump and his team were considering “a range of options” for acquiring Greenland, including possible use of the US military, which it said was “always an option.”

Barrot, however, said that in a phone call on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him that he had “ruled out the possibility of an invasion” of Greenland. “I myself was on the phone yesterday with US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio … who confirmed that this was not the approach taken,” he said.

Trump has shown interest in Greenland for years, but tensions have escalated sharply in recent days. Following the US military operation in Venezuela on Saturday, during which troops removed President Nicolás Maduro, the administration’s rhetoric — and international concern — has intensified, raising doubts about NATO’s stability.

Late on January 6, the Danish parliament convened an extraordinary session to discuss the unprecedented situation. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt are seeking an urgent meeting with Rubio.

“We would like to add some nuance to the conversation,” Rasmussen said on social media. “The shouting match must be replaced by a more sensible dialogue. Now.”

Trump has claimed that Greenland is “full of Chinese and Russian ships” and argued that Denmark is unable to defend the territory, which he has described as vital to US national security.

Rasmussen countered after the parliamentary session that the US was presenting a distorted picture of events in Greenland. “The image that is being painted of Russian and Chinese ships right inside the Nuuk fjord and massive Chinese investments being made is not correct,” he said.

He added that the situation was “based on a misreading of what is up and what is down,” stressing: “We are looking after the kingdom.”

Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, also pushed back against US criticism, saying: “We have invested close to 100bn [Danish krone] (£11.6bn) in security capabilities.”

By Tamilla Hasanova