Paris
CNN
–
French President Emmanuel Macron has lands in Greenland Sunday and is designed to strengthen European support for Danish territory, which is still moving forward from the Trump administration to win it for the US.
Macron will be the first foreign leader to visit a resource-rich island since US President Donald Trump launched a campaign to buy or annex Greenland.
Sources at Elise Palace said that the French president’s trip is “one of the dimensions of solidarity in Europe and the strengthening of sovereignty and territorial integrity” without mentioning the Trump administration’s threat of purchasing Greenland or by force.
Macron’s visit will also focus on Arctic security, climate change and Greenland’s economic development, sources added.
While on the world’s largest island, French leaders tour glaciers, hydroelectric power plants and Danish warships moored near the semi-automatic territory capital Nouk, according to Elisel.
“Deep is not on sale. More than Greenland is on sale. Antarctica and the high seas are on sale,” Macron opened a UN Conference on the Oceans in Nice, France on June 9th.
Trump’s intentions for Greenland cannot be far from the French president’s thoughts on Macron’s first visit to the Arctic Circle, which he will make with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s political leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
French Foreign Minister Jeannoel Barott said in January that Paris had begun to discuss “the deployment of the French army) and Denmark,” but Copenhagen said he didn’t want to move forward with the idea.
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in buying the island, even if NATO Ally Denmark and Greenland firmly reject the idea. Last month, the US president updated his threat to use military force to annex the territory.
US Vice President JD Vance issued a ban on entry in late March to visit US forces in Greenland. During that trip, the Vice President filed a famous lawsuit to gain control of the island. He said Greenland is better than “that’s you’re under US security umbrella than you were under Danish security umbrella.”
On June 12, Danish Parliament expanded its military agreement with Washington to allow bases of Danish soil. US soldiers previously were based at a Danish facility.
Denmark is moving to strengthen its military presence in Greenland, including 1,500 miles of fighter jets from the mainland Denmark, about 1,500 miles from the Danish mainland and fighters to patrol US and naval frigates, according to Greenland’s Parliament.
