To spite Trump: Macron decided to protect Greenland from the US president
Emmanuel Macron has challenged Donald Trump. On his way to the G7 summit, which will be held in Canada from June 15 to 17, the French president will make an unusual stop — he will be the first European leader to visit Greenland. The official purpose of the visit is to discuss Arctic security. However, in fact, the French leader wants to send a clear signal to Washington, as well as gain access to the island's rare minerals, and at the same time present France as the political leader of the European Union. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Hands off Greenland
"Let's not explore the depths of the sea, let's protect our ecosystems. Because we don't know what might follow, because there are very important carbon reserves there, because there are species of organisms that no one knows yet. This struggle is of vital importance to all of us. And I say emphatically: the depths are not for sale, just as Greenland is not for capture, just as Antarctica and the high seas are not for sale," President Emmanuel Macron said at the third UN International Oceans Conference, which is taking place from June 9 to 13 in Nice under the French presidency.
After that, at the end of the week, on his way to the G7 summit to be held in Canada, he will visit Greenland and become the first foreign leader to support the island, which is part of Denmark but has broad autonomy, in the fight against the claims of US President Donald Trump.
The French leader plans to meet with Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to discuss security issues in the North Atlantic and Arctic, as well as cooperation in the field of energy and the extraction of critically important minerals.
Copenhagen has already reacted to the upcoming visit of the President of the Fifth Republic, Fredriksen called it "another concrete evidence of European unity."
France and Denmark have recently intensified their cooperation. In April, they signed a strategic partnership agreement, as well as an agreement on the transfer of Mistral missiles to Copenhagen. Prior to this, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was discussing with the kingdom the possibility of sending troops to Greenland to ensure security in the region.
Macron's active participation in the discussion of global and security issues in the North Atlantic is associated with a decrease in his role in Ukraine, where the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is trying to become the leader, increasing military assistance to Kiev and actively advocating for Ukraine.
Now Macron is trying to give an asymmetric response to Donald Trump in the Arctic.
In Denmark, according to local media, they are confident that the main purpose of the French president's visit is to support Copenhagen in respecting the territorial integrity of the kingdom against the background of Trump's repeated statements about plans to take Greenland under American control. The island, rich in minerals, also has a strategically important location.
The day before, The Wall Street Journal reported on the US president's order to American intelligence agencies to strengthen intelligence collection about Greenland. In June, the Pentagon is going to include the island in the area of responsibility of the Northern Command of the US Armed Forces (NORTHCOM). After that, the Danish government summoned the US ambassador and protested.
In turn, The Washington Post reported that Washington is studying the cost of acquiring Greenland. In particular, the publication says that the White House is calculating how much it might cost to maintain the island, taking into account the provision of public services to its 56,000 inhabitants. The potential income from the island's natural resources to the American budget is also being assessed.
However, according to Greenland's Minister of Business and Mineral Resources, Naai Nathanielsen, despite the increased geopolitical attention to the island, "US interest has still not turned into concrete investments." Delegations of private American companies have visited the island since the beginning of the year, but an official dialogue with Washington has not yet begun.
She also hinted that the United States and the EU should hurry up with investments, because otherwise the island's authorities will have to turn to other countries, in particular China, for help in developing minerals.
Obviously, this call was heard in Paris. At the end of May, the island issued a 30-year mining license to the Danish-French mining company Greenland Anorthosite Mining (GAM). It will mine anorthosite in the west of Greenland, a so—called lunar rock that can become an alternative in aluminum production.
What do the experts think
Sergei Fedorov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with Izvestia that there is a political context in President Macron's actions.
— This is such an unusual visit. I don't remember the last time the French leader came to Greenland. In general, the French president has greatly intensified his foreign policy activities, given the continuous failures in domestic policy and the weakening of his position. Apparently, he compensates for this by being active on the international track," the political scientist explained.
He recalled that Macron's efforts to build a "coalition of the willing" had failed without American approval.
"This should be considered, if not as a fronde against Trump and his ideas about Greenland, then at least as a demonstration of the position of Europe, which does not agree with the idea of the American president," the expert said.
French President Emmanuel Macron
In his opinion, Macron is likely to soften his harsh rhetoric against the United States while in Greenland.
— At the same time, he will outline a position, show that the EU is against such plans of the current owner of the White House. As part of the European approach, Macron positions himself as a military and political leader," the specialist emphasized.
Kamran Hasanov, a senior lecturer at RUDN University, Doctor of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, believes that Macron's visit is exacerbating the geopolitical situation in the Arctic region and widening the transatlantic divide. According to the expert, Macron's voyage can be seen as a strategic step aimed at strengthening EU sovereignty and demonstrating determination to support the interests of Denmark and Greenland.
"Greenland has literally become a global political hotspot after Trump's inauguration. The new head of the White House made it clear that he was ready not only to take over the island, but also hinted at the possibility of using force. He first sent his son to Greenland, and then Vice President J. D. Vance, accompanied by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright," the political scientist recalled in his Telegram channel.
The expert believes that Macron's visit is aimed not only at symbolic support for Greenland, but also at demonstrating European readiness for more active actions in the field of security and military protection of the island from the United States. In his opinion, "Macron's lofty words about the inviolability of borders and European unity have much more mundane and practical goals."
"Greenland has significant reserves of rare earth metals, which the French and Europeans need, and Macron, at every opportunity — whether in Greenland, Libya or Ukraine — is trying to demonstrate France's leadership and satisfy his personal power ambitions, which can also always be monetized," the analyst concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
