French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit Greenland, his office said Saturday, the first foreign head of state to do so since US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the autonomous Danish territory.
Macron’s office said he had been invited to visit on June 15 by the territory’s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish leader Mette Frederiksen.
The three will hold talks focused on North Atlantic and Arctic security, climate change, the energy transition and the supply of critical minerals, the French presidency said.
The visit will contribute to fostering “European sovereignty” and was aiming at “strengthening cooperation” with Greenland, it added.
Frederiksen called the visit “a concrete testimony of European unity” in a statement.
“It has been uplifting to see the strong international support for Greenland and the Kingdom in the difficult foreign policy situation in recent months,” she said.
Danish and Greenlandic leaders have insisted that the autonomous territory, where a majority are in favour of independence in the long term, must decide its own future, and have repeatedly said Washington “will never get Greenland”.
Macron will travel on to Canada after the Greenland visit to participate in a G7 summit.
