US President-elect Donald Trump has been warned to respect the sovereign borders of nations by EU leaders. (Reuters: Carlos Barria/File Photo)
In short:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned Donald Trump against threatening the sovereignty of EU nations after the incoming US leader refused to rule out military action to seize the Danish territory of Greenland.
Trump said the US "needs Greenland" despite it being a part of the EU and NATO due to Denmark's membership.
What's next?
EU leaders echoed Mr Scholz's comments ahead of Trump's inauguration as US president on January 20.
European leaders have warned Donald Trump against threatening "sovereign borders" after the US President-elect refused to rule out military action to take Greenland.
Germany's Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday Trump's comments had sparked "notable incomprehension" among EU leaders the chancellor had spoken with.
Trump has stated his desire for the mineral- and oil-rich Arctic island to become part of the US, despite it being an autonomous territory of European Union member Denmark that itself has eyes on independence.
He set off new alarm bells on Tuesday at a news conference when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.
"We need Greenland for national security purposes," he declared.
Trump refuses to rule out using military to seize Greenland
Photo shows Donald Trump wears a blue suit and red tie as he looks to his side while standing at a podium
Trump also labelled the US-Canada border an "artificially drawn line" and promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America".
In Berlin, Mr Scholz convened a press conference at short notice and stressed that the "inviolability of borders is a fundamental principle of international law".
In a later tweet in English, Mr Scholz reiterated Berlin's position that "borders must not be moved by force" and that Trump's latest outburst had caused "uneasiness" among European governments.
Referring indirectly to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mr Scholz said that the principle of sovereign borders "applies to every country, whether in the East or the West".
'Wild hypothetical stuff'
The year of the unknown
Photo shows A man with a red face and a cap in front of a series of red concentric circles and white squiggly lines
Donald Trump Jr made a whistlestop visit to Greenland's capital Nuuk on Tuesday, insisting he was only making a day-long trip as a "tourist" and he was not there to "buy" the territory.
Denmark itself struck a more emollient tone, even as Trump threatened to slap high tariffs on Copenhagen if it refused to cede Greenland.
Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the Danish Realm — which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands — was "open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can cooperate, possibly even more closely than we already do, to ensure that American ambitions are fulfilled".
"We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they materialise, Greenland will become independent, though hardly with an ambition to become a federal state in the United States," Mr Rasmussen said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Greenland was "European territory" and there was "no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be … attack its sovereign borders".
In Brussels, the EU attempted to avoid being drawn into a war of words, one spokesman dismissing Trump's territorial claim as "wild hypothetical stuff".
Greenland has been autonomous since 1979 and has its own flag, language and institutions, with its 57,000 people governing their own domestic affairs and aiming for eventual independence.
The world's biggest island has been part of Denmark for 600 years and its justice, monetary, defence and foreign affairs all remain under Danish control.
Another EU spokeswoman confirmed that Greenland was covered by a mutual defence clause binding EU members to assist one another in case of attack.
"But we are indeed speaking of something extremely theoretical on which we will not want to elaborate," EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho told reporters.
AFP