French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting Greenland today, in what experts say is a show of European unity and a signal to Donald Trump.
He arrived and wrote: “Tak!”
France’s president is the first high-profile leader to be invited by Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Polls show the vast majority of Greenland’s 57,000 people want independence from Denmark but not to become part of the US.
Macron Trip
Asked about Trump’s ambitions as he arrived in Greenland, Macron is cited by Reuters as saying: “I don’t think that’s what allies do… it’s important that Denmark and the Europeans commit themselves to this territory, which has very high strategic stakes and whose territorial integrity must be respected.”
He told the world’s media: “Greenland is not to be sold.”
He was greeted warmly, with people in Greenland greeting the French leader and waving an EU flag.
Other people had this to say…
1.
2.
3.
4.
Vance/Trump
The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited a US base in Greenland for three hours, along with his wife. National security adviser Mike Waltz and his wife also went along.
They scaled back the trip after the original plans for the unsolicited visit prompted an international diplomatic row.
The U.S. military announced it had removed Col. Susannah Meyers, commander of its Pituffik base in Greenland, stating it would not tolerate any pushback against President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Meyers sent an email to base personnel on March 31 distancing herself from U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit.
Before the Vances’ arrival, Trump said the US will “go as far as we have to go” to gain control of the island.
Also, in January, Donald Trump Jr arrived in Greenland, weeks after his father said he wanted the US to take control of the autonomous Danish territory.
Ahead of his visit, Trump Jr said he was embarking on a “personal day-trip” and had no meetings planned with government officials.
At the time a group of Greenlanders who attended a lunch, in a hotel, hosted by Donald Trump Jr wearing Make America Great Again caps were not dedicated supporters of the US president-elect but homeless people enticed by the prospect of free food.
The group of about 15 people ate a traditional Greenlandic lunch including fish and caribou. They were not, Jørgen Bay-Kastrup, the hotel’s chief executive added, Trump supporters. “They were just, ‘hey, somebody invited us for lunch, let’s go and join him’. I think they found out later who it was.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Related: Hillary Clinton trolls Trump over his ‘low-energy’ military parade
