BERLIN: European leaders on Wednesday 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 Trump’s comments had sparked “notable incomprehension” among EU leaders the chancellor had spoken with.
Trump has designs on the mineral- and oil-rich Arctic Island, 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 also labelled the US-Canada border an “artificially drawn line” and promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
In Berlin, 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, Scholz reiterated Berlin’s position that “borders must not be moved by force” and that Trump’s latest outburst had cause “uneasiness” among European governments.
Referring indirectly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Scholz said that the principle of sovereign borders “applies to every country, whether in the East or the West.”
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 — is “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.”
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. But justice, monetary, defense and foreign affairs all remain under Danish control.
Another EU spokeswoman confirmed that Greenland was covered by a mutual defense 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.
Barrot ruled out the possibility of a US invasion of Greenland but told France Inter radio: “We have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest.
“Should we be intimidated? Should we be overcome with worry? Evidently, no.
“We need to wake up and reinforce ourselves, militarily, in competition, in a world where the law of the strongest prevails.”
Barrot said he believed the United States was “inherently not imperialistic” and said he “did not believe” that that was changing.
However French government spokeswoman Sophie Primas told reporters after a cabinet meeting that there was a “form of imperialism” in Trump’s comments.
“Today we are seeing the rise in blocs, we can see this as a form of imperialism, which materializes itself in the statements that we saw from Mr.Trump on the annexation of an entire territory.
“More than ever, we and our European partners need to be conscious, to get away from a form of naivety, to protect ourselves, to rearm,” she added.
‘Uneasy’ Europe warns Trump over Greenland ambitions
https://arab.news/nrcgq
‘Uneasy’ Europe warns Trump over Greenland ambitions
- Germany’s Olaf Scholz said Trump’s comments had sparked “notable incomprehension” among EU leaders the chancellor had spoken with
- The EU attempted to avoid being drawn into a war of words, one spokesman dismissing Trump’s territorial claim as “wild hypothetical stuff“
Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump
- Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city
MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials’ immediate description of the incident.
Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
President Donald Trump’s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday.
After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them.”
“I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child,” she told Fox News show “The Sunday Briefing.”
She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
‘Joint’ probe
Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.
“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: “What’s the plan, Donald Trump?“
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?“
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!“
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim, telling reporters “it’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men.”
Court order
Since “Operation Metro Surge” began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks — including children — and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate.
Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday forcefully condemned Pretti’s killing, saying in a statement it should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault.”
The former president and first lady blasted Trump and his government as seeming “eager to escalate the situation.”
