The Danish government is calling for a crisis meeting following Donald Trump’s statements about wanting the US to annex the Danish island of Greenland. At the same time, the Nordic country is receiving support from Germany and France, according to reports in German and French media.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called for a crisis meeting with the other party leaders on Thursday, as reported by Danish Radio.

The reason for this is the incoming US President Donald Trump’s remarks about wanting the US to take control of the Danish island Greenland.

German support

Denmark is receiving support in the escalating conflict with the US from neighboring Germany.

“Borders should not be shifted by force,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a speech on Wednesday commenting on Trump’s recent remarks.

“All states must adhere to this principle, whether it’s a very small country or a large powerful state.”

The German Chancellor believes that there seems to be a lack of understanding in the US to respect other states’ borders.

France: A form of imperialism

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit declined to answer a question during the day about whether the incoming American president’s remarks are seen as a serious threat, but added that the Germans “noted” them.

Just hours before the statement from Berlin, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot commented on Trump’s remarks in a radio interview.

“There is no doubt that the EU will not allow any other state in the world, regardless of who it is, to attack its sovereign borders,” he said.

Meanwhile, the French government spokeswoman Sophie Primas dismisses Trump’s remarks as “a form of imperialism”.

“National security purposes”

Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November and will be inaugurated as the new US president in less than two weeks. He has previously spoken about wanting to “buy” Greenland but escalated his rhetoric during a press conference on Tuesday.

“We don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to Greenland, but if they do, they should give up the island,” he said then.

Trump claims that the US needs Greenland for its “national security purposes,” especially to keep Russian and Chinese ships away from the waters around the island.

The incoming president wants a referendum in Greenland, where the population votes on joining the US. If Denmark refuses, he threatens with sanctions such as tariffs. Trump has said that he does not rule out taking Greenland by force.

Since the 10th century

Vikings from Norway and Iceland settled in Greenland in the late 10th century. From here, the first Europeans, led by Leif Eriksson, sailed to America in the early 11th century.

The Thule people, ancestors of today’s Inuit, arrived in Greenland from present-day Canada sometime around the year 1300. A century later, the Nordic-descended Greenlanders had disappeared, possibly due to a colder climate.

In the early 1600s, the Danish-Norwegian king sent several expeditions to Greenland to assert sovereignty over the island, a practice that continued until the 1700s when Danish-Norwegian control was established. When Norway was invaded by Sweden in the early 1800s, Greenland became exclusively Danish.

Since the late 1970s, the Greenlanders have gradually gained extensive self-government, but foreign and defense policy is still governed from Copenhagen.