Macron visits Greenland in show of support for territory coveted by Trump

COPENHAGEN - French President Emmanuel Macron visited Greenland on Sunday, saying he was bringing “a message of solidarity and friendship” from France and the European Union to a strategic Arctic territory that President Donald Trump has vowed to “get” for the United States “one way or another.”

Asked by a reporter about Trump’s promise to somehow annex Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, Macron responded, “I don’t think that’s what allies do.”

Macron’s visit was the latest pointed demonstration of European support for Greenland in the face of entreaties and threats from the Trump administration just as Trump prepares to attend meetings this month with leaders of the Group of Seven and NATO. Denmark, like the United States and France, is a NATO member.

“It’s important to show that Denmark and Europe are committed to this territory, which has very high strategic stakes and whose territorial integrity must be respected,” Macron said, as he prepared to meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s newly elected prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, on a Danish naval frigate in the harbor.

The French leader planned to spend just a few hours in Greenland, a quick stop en route to the G-7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

It was the first visit by a head of state to Greenland since Trump resumed talking about taking the territory after he won a second term. During his first term, Trump proposed buying Greenland. Late last year, he wrote on Truth Social that “the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

The Danish government has insisted that Greenland “is not for sale,” and the new government in Greenland said that only Greenlanders will determine their future.

Vice President JD Vance made a brief visit in March to Pituffik Space Base, part of the U.S. Space Force, in northwest Greenland, where he used an expletive to describe how cold the place was. Vance’s trip was scaled back and confined to the base after an outcry from local officials.

“The president said we have to have Greenland, and I think we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland,” Vance said during his visit. “We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”

There is now an intense, global focus on the Arctic region, with China, Russia, Canada, Europe and the United States all seeking more control of this newly melting region, with its untapped oil and gas reserves, new sea routes and the potential to mine for the rare earth minerals that are needed to manufacture batteries, electronic devices and automobiles.

In an address to Congress in March, Trump said that although he supported Greenland’s right to determine its own destiny, he would welcome it into the United States.

“And I think we’re going to get it - one way or the other, we’re going to get it,” he said.

While Vance was visiting the space base, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Greenland was important “for the peace of the world.” He added: “And I think Denmark understands, and I think the European Union understands it. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them.”

Officials in Greenland have described Trump’s words as disrespectful.

The Trump administration, however, has not backed down. Pressed by Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee last week on whether the Pentagon has plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth replied: “Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency” - a reply that rattled even some Republican members.

Greenland is the world’s largest island, about three times the size of Texas.

It supports a population of about 57,000 people, who reside along the coast and fjords, on the 20 percent of rocky, barren land not covered by the territory’s immense ice sheet. The people are mostly Inuit. The economy is based on fishing and generous subsidies from Denmark.

Greenland is weighing its options.

In the most recent elections, in March, the opposition Democrats Party won the most votes, with 30 percent of the ballot. Leaders of the pro-business party have spoken in favor of pursuing a moderate pace of independence from Denmark.

After attending the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France, this month, Nielsen, the prime minister, applauded Macron for “a strong and supportive message about Greenland when he made it very clear that Greenland cannot be taken.”

Nielsen wrote that France “has had our back since the first statements about taking our country came out.”

In May, Greenland awarded a 30-year permit to a Danish-French mining group that wants to extract anorthosite, which is now used to make fiberglass but could also offer a greener alternative to aluminum production.

Although geologists say Greenland is rich in minerals, extraction can be expensive because of the lack of infrastructure and the hostile climate.

“I really want America and Europe investing more,” Greenland’s minister of mining, Naaja Nathanielsen, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “But first and foremost I am responsible for the development of the Greenlandic society.”