PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday a <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-takes-davos-stage-as-greenland-dispute-looms-over-transatlantic-ties" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">standoff with the United States </a>over Greenland was &quot;a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe&quot;, speaking alongside the leaders of Denmark and the Danish autonomous territory.&nbsp;European powers have <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/greenland-denmark-set-aside-troubled-history-to-face-down-trump" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">sought to join forces </a>to show they can stand on their own feet after US President Donald Trump has roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize Greenland.&nbsp;Speaking alongside the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Macron said the &quot;awakening&quot; must focus &quot;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.&quot;&nbsp;He reaffirmed to Frederiksen and Nielsen France&#39;s solidarity and &quot;its commitment to your sovereignty and territorial integrity.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the United Nations Charter,&quot; he added, expressing his support for increased NATO engagement in the Arctic.&nbsp;Macron said some words in the Indigenous Greenlandic language, and then switching to the Danish language told the premier France would &quot;be side-by-side&quot; with the &quot;Kingdom of Denmark&quot;.&nbsp;After European pushback, Trump backed down on the threat to take Greenland by military force.&nbsp;Speaking in Paris earlier Wednesday, Frederiksen said that Europe needed to improve its defences &quot;now&quot; to become less reliant on the United States for military protection.&nbsp;On Monday, NATO chief Mark Rutte told EU lawmakers to &quot;keep on dreaming&quot; if they thought Europe could defend itself without the US.&nbsp;In response to Rutte&#39;s comments, Frederiksen conceded it would be &quot;extremely difficult&quot; for Europe to defend itself right now.&nbsp;&quot;Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US,&quot; she said at Sciences Po university.&nbsp;&quot;But I think we&#39;re able to do more than what is being said publicly right now.&quot;&nbsp;As for a 2035 target to ramp up spending on NATO, she said: &quot;I&#39;m sorry to say it would be too late.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing.&quot;&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Fredriksen said Europe had made a &quot;big mistake&quot; by cutting military budgets in the past.

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 French President Emmanuel Macron says the situation with the United States over Greenland is "a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe", speaking alongside the leaders of Denmark and the Danish autonomous territory.

Greenland dispute 'strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,' says Macron

WASHINGTON: Denmark&#39;s top diplomat said on Wednesday he failed to change the mind of US President Donald Trump&#39;s administration on his threats to seize Greenland after flying to the White House for talks. The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Copenhagen, met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in what they hoped would clear up &quot;misunderstandings&quot; after Trump&#39;s bellicose language toward the NATO ally. &quot;We didn&#39;t manage to change the American position. It&#39;s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland,&quot; Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting. &quot;And we made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom.&quot; The minister said a US takeover of Greenland, where Washington has long had a military base, was &quot;absolutely not necessary.&quot; He said the issue was &quot;very emotional&quot; for the people of Greenland and Denmark, a steadfast US ally whose troops died alongside Americans in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq. &quot;Ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the right of self-determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable,&quot; Lokke said. &quot;We therefore still have a fundamental disagreement, but we also agree to disagree.&quot; He said the two sides would form a committee that would meet within weeks to see if there was possible headway. Trump insisted hours before the talks that NATO should support the US effort to take control of Greenland, even though major European allies have all lined up to back Denmark. Trump said Greenland was &quot;vital&quot; for his planned Golden Dome air and missile defense system. &quot;Anything less than that is unacceptable,&quot; he wrote on his Truth Social network. &quot;IF WE DON&#39;T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!&quot; Mocking tone While the talks were underway, the White House posted on X: &quot;Which way, Greenland man?&quot; The post included a drawing of two dogsleds &mdash; one heading towards the White House and a huge US flag, and the other towards Chinese and Russian flags over a lightning-bathed Kremlin and Great Wall of China. Neither country has claimed Greenland, and Lokke said no Chinese ship had been spotted there in a decade. Denmark promised ahead of the meeting to ramp up its military presence further in the vast, sparsely populated and strategically located island. Trump has derided recent Danish efforts to increase security for Greenland as amounting to &quot;two dogsleds.&quot; Denmark says it has invested almost $14 billion in Arctic security. The row over Greenland has deeply shaken transatlantic relations. Both Denmark and Greenland insist only Greenlanders should decide the autonomous island&#39;s fate. In the quiet streets of the capital, Nuuk, red and white Greenlandic flags were flying in shop windows, on apartment balconies, and on cars and buses, in a show of national unity as the talks got underway. &quot;We are standing together in these times when we might feel vulnerable,&quot; the Nuuk municipality wrote on Facebook. Greenland&#39;s leader said Tuesday that the island prefers to remain part of Denmark, prompting Trump to say &quot;that&#39;s going to be a big problem for him.&quot; Vance, who slammed Denmark as a &quot;bad ally&quot; during a visit to Greenland last year, is known for a hard edge, which was on display when he publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last February. The meeting, however, was closed to the press, meaning there was no on-camera confrontation. Emboldened by Venezuela Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told AFP earlier Wednesday his country was boosting its military presence in Greenland and was in talks with NATO allies. The Danish defense ministry then announced that it would do so &quot;from today,&quot; hosting a military exercise and sending in &quot;aircraft, vessels and soldiers.&quot; Swedish officers were joining the exercise at Denmark&#39;s request, Stockholm said. Trump has appeared emboldened on Greenland &mdash; and on what he views as the US backyard as a whole &mdash; since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed President Nicolas Maduro. The White House has repeatedly said military action against Greenland remains on the table.

Danish defense ministry announces it will "from today" host a military exercise and sending in "aircraft, vessels and soldiers"; Swedish officers are joining the exercise at Denmark's request; White House has repeatedly said military action against Greenland remains on the table.

Articles tagged with "US Denmark"

Greenland dispute 'strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,' says Macron

Denmark says White House talks failed to alter US designs on Greenland