“Greenland is not for sale, nor is it up for grabs. The Greenlanders will decide their own future,” Macron said in the indigenous Greenlandic language.
He then switched to Danish, telling the Prime Minister that France would “be side-by-side” with the “Kingdom of Denmark”.
In a gesture of solidarity, a modest number of military personnel were deployed to Greenland this month by a handful of European countries, including France.
After European pushback, Trump backed down on the threat to take Greenland, which is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, by military force.
On Tuesday, the French navy flagship, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, set course for the Atlantic for pre-planned military exercises. Sources familiar with the matter told AFP that the carrier was being deployed to the North Atlantic.
‘Greenland will never forget’
Frederiksen said that recent weeks had shown that Europe can stand up for itself.
“The world order as we have known it is under pressure, it’s changing rapidly,” she added. “Maybe it’s gone.”
Nielsen, 34, thanked Macron for “standing by us without hesitation”.
“We will in Greenland never forget it,” he said.
He said co-operation with France was not only about Greenland.
“It goes beyond Greenland,” Nielsen said. “For us, this is about the values in the world, our democracy.”
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Frederiksen said that Europe needed to improve its defences “now” to become less reliant on the United States for military protection.
On Monday, Nato chief Mark Rutte told EU lawmakers to “keep on dreaming” if they thought Europe could defend itself without the United States.
In response to Rutte’s comments, Frederiksen conceded it would be “extremely difficult” for Europe to defend itself now.
“Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US,” she said at Sciences Po university.
“But I think we’re able to do more than what is being said publicly right now.”
As for a 2035 target to ramp up spending on Nato, she said: “I’m sorry to say it would be too late.”
“I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing.”
Nato members committed to raising defence and security spending last year to 5% of their economic output, following on from an earlier target of 2% by 2024, after pressure from the US Government.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted Frederiksen in Berlin and assured her of Germany’s solidarity.
- Agence France-Presse
