German and EU leaders remind Trump of sovereign borders as president-elect says US 'needs Greenland'

European leaders have warned Donald Trump against threatening "sovereign borders," after the US President-elect refused to rule out military action to seize Greenland. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that Trump’s remarks had caused “clear incomprehension” when he spoke to EU leaders.

Trump has said he wants the mineral and oil-rich Arctic island to become part of the US, even though it is an autonomous territory of the EU member state Denmark, which itself is seeking independence. He raised alarm bells again at a press conference on Tuesday, refusing to rule out military intervention in both the Panama Canal and Greenland, which he has said he wants the US to control. He declared: “We need Greenland for national security.”

Trump has also called the US-Canada border a “man-made line” and pledged to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” In Berlin, Mr Scholz convened a hastily arranged press conference to stress that “the inviolability of borders is a basic principle of international law.” Mr Scholz later reiterated Berlin’s position in an English-language tweet that “borders must never be moved by force” and said Trump’s latest outburst had caused “unease” in European capitals.

Scholz indirectly referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying the principle of sovereign borders “applies to every country, whether in the East or the West.” Donald Trump’s son made a whirlwind visit to Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, on Tuesday, insisting he was just making a one-day trip as a “tourist” and not to “buy” the territory. Denmark itself has been more conciliatory, even after Trump threatened to impose heavy tariffs on Copenhagen if it refused to cede Greenland.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the Kingdom of Denmark – which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands – was “willing to have a dialogue with the Americans on how to collaborate, maybe even more closely than we do now, to ensure that American ambitions are met.” Mr Rasmussen said: “We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they are realised, Greenland will become independent, though unlikely as a US state.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Greenland was “European territory” and that “the EU would never allow other countries in the world, whoever they are… to attack its sovereign borders.” In Brussels, the EU sought to avoid a war of words, with a spokesperson dismissing Trump’s territorial claims as “mad hypotheses.”

Greenland has been self-governing since 1979, with its own flag, language and institutions, and its 57,000 people manage their own internal affairs, with the aim of eventual independence. The world’s largest island has been part of Denmark for 600 years, with its judiciary, currency, defence and foreign affairs still controlled by Denmark. Another EU spokeswoman confirmed that Greenland is protected by a mutual defence clause that binds EU members to assist each other if attacked. “But we are indeed talking about something very theoretical and we do not want to elaborate on that,” said EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho to reporters.