American pressure “remains strong”, but Greenland “will never be for sale”, launched Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Friday during the Aix-en-Provence Economic Meetings, calling for “great partnerships” with countries “which share the values of democracy”.
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Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory coveted by Donald Trump, has suffered “unacceptable pressure” from the United States for almost two years and “the pressure remains strong”, underlined Mr. Nielsen during a round table on the theme “One world, several visions: who imposes theirs? “.
He spoke in particular alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and the President of the Eurogroup and Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis.
Faced with this situation, “we want to work and have great partnerships with countries (…) which share the values of democracy, respect for international laws, human rights,” he said.
“In this crisis, France and the European Union have been a great, great, great support for us because they share the values of democracy,” he added. “We must remain united,” and “we must stand firmly alongside countries that share these values,” and “also countries like Canada.”
“This could benefit us all” and “we have resources that we can pool in Greenland”.
“We will never give up our values and we will never be for sale,” he said, widely applauded by the assembly attending the round table.
Jean-Noël Barrot for his part hailed an “authentic European hero”, stressing that Nielsen had “shown incredible courage”.
Tensions have increased around Greenland after US President Donald Trump’s repeated statements that the United States must annex the territory to guarantee its national security.
In January, Mr. Trump reversed several weeks of intense, aggressive statements, announcing that he had reached a framework agreement on Greenland with the NATO secretary general, the details of which remain unclear.
In May, Jens-Frederik Nielsen indicated that discussions between the territory, Denmark and the United States had not yet resulted in an agreement, although progress had been made.
