(Bloomberg) — President Emmanuel Macron said France would be available to conduct joint exercises to improve security in Greenland, the Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump.
Most Read from Bloomberg
“Greenland is subject to preying ambitions,” Macron told reporters in Nuuk, Greenland, Sunday alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “Everyone thinks — in France and in the EU — that Greenland shall neither be sold nor taken.”
The French President said a US annexation would be a “crazy” scenario and called for joint exercises in the Arctic region, including Baltic and Nordic states, with Canada and even with the US.
The US president has cited national security as a reason to acquire the semi-autonomous island and criticized Denmark for not investing enough in its defense of the territory, which has a strategic location straddling the North Atlantic and the Arctic. It’s already home to a US air base and radar station used to detect missile threats and monitor space.
Trump recently said he would “100%” get the island — rekindling an idea he first floated in 2019.
Macron and Trump are set to cross paths at a meeting of Group of Seven leaders in Canada, which begins Monday. There, leaders are expected to discuss the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, but also to issue a statement about critical minerals, which are believed to exist in vast quantities in Greenland.
Macron said he would bring the issue up with Trump at the G-7 meeting.
Macron, who often casts himself as a defender of European sovereignty, is joining a chorus of leaders on the continent who have opposed Trump’s ambitions on island.
Trump’s comments on acquiring the island have been criticized by Greenlanders and Danes and also by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. While Merz didn’t travel with Macron on Sunday, he met Danish leader Mette Frederiksen earlier this week in Berlin and said he stood by the side of Denmark.
Macron has been seeking to capitalize on his long relationship with his US counterpart, while also criticizing some of Trump’s policies. Earlier this year, Macron urged US-based scientists hit by cost cuts to relocate to Europe. Last week, he said Greenland, the Arctic and deep seas were “not for sale” — a veiled jab at Trump, whose administration is promoting deep sea mining in international waters.
