PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday a standoff with the United States over Greenland was “a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,” speaking alongside the leaders of Denmark and the Danish autonomous territory.
European powers have sought to join forces to show they can stand on their own feet after US President Donald Trump has roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize Greenland.
Speaking alongside the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Macron said the “awakening” must focus “on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, and on the fight against global warming.”
He reaffirmed to Frederiksen and Nielsen France’s solidarity and “its commitment to your sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” he added, expressing his support for increased NATO engagement in the Arctic.
Macron said some words in the Indigenous Greenlandic language, and then switching to the Danish language told the premier France would “be side-by-side” with the “Kingdom of Denmark.”
After European pushback, Trump backed down on the threat to take Greenland by military force.
Speaking in Paris earlier Wednesday, Frederiksen said that Europe needed to improve its defenses “now” to become less reliant on the United States for military protection.
On Monday, NATO chief Mark Rutte told EU lawmakers to “keep on dreaming” if they thought Europe could defend itself without the US.
In response to Rutte’s comments, Frederiksen conceded it would be “extremely difficult” for Europe to defend itself right now.
“Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US,” she said at Sciences Po university.
“But I think we’re able to do more than what is being said publicly right now.”
As for a 2035 target to ramp up spending on NATO, she said: “I’m sorry to say it would be too late.”
“I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing.”
NATO members committed to raising defense and security spending last year to five percent of their economic output, following on from an earlier target of two percent by 2024, after pressure from the US government.
Fredriksen said Europe had made a “big mistake” by cutting military budgets in the past.
Greenland dispute ‘strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,’ says Macron
https://arab.news/b8m3p
Greenland dispute ‘strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,’ says Macron
- Macron said the “awakening” must focus “on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security”
- After European pushback, Trump backed down on the threat to take Greenland by military force
Germany says UN rights rapporteur for Palestinian territories should quit
- Albanese has said that her comments are being falsely portrayed
- “I have never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity’,” Albanese said
BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday called for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, over comments she made allegedly targeting Israel at a conference.
“I respect the UN system of independent rapporteurs. However, Ms Albanese has made numerous inappropriate remarks in the past. I condemn her recent statements about Israel. She is untenable in her position,” Wadephul wrote on X.
Albanese has said that her comments are being falsely portrayed. She denounced what she called “completely false accusations” and “manipulation” of her words in an interview with broadcaster France 24 on Wednesday.
Speaking via videoconference at a forum in Doha on Saturday organized by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticizing “most of the world” and much of Western media for enabling the “genocide” in Gaza.
“And this is a challenge — the fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support,” she said.
Albanese said that “international law has been stabbed in the heart” but added that there is an opportunity since “we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”
Wadephul’s French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot on Wednesday made the same call for Albanese to resign over the comments.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Barrot told French lawmakers.
Albanese posted video of her comments to X on Monday, writing in the post that “the common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it.”
In her interview with France 24, which was recorded before Barrot’s statement, she contended that her comments were being misrepresented.
“I have never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity’,” Albanese told the broadcaster.
