Faced with US threats over Greenland, French President, Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, stressed on Tuesday 6 January that Arctic security remained “a key priority for Europe and (was) critical for international and transatlantic security ”.
“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”, they explained in a joint statement, promising that they would not stop defending these universal principles.
The leaders felt that the United States was an essential partner in this endeavour, as a NATO ally and through the defence agreement concluded with the Kingdom of Denmark in 1951. “The Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – is part of NATO”, they also pointed out.
And they concluded: “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland”.
Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, thanked Europe for its “particularly important and unequivocal” support.
See the leaders’ statement: https://aeur.eu/f/k6g (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)