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Red-eyed resolve - Weary-looking Macron pledges to bolster military contingent as European military personnel arrive in Greenland

Red-eyed resolve - Weary-looking Macron pledges to bolster military contingent as European military personnel arrive in Greenland

"A tired-looking President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France would be ‘ready to act’ in response to recent developments linked to US President Donald Trump’s stated interest in acquiring Greenland, as French troops joined a Danish-led military exercise following the remarks. “We, the French, are not spectators or commentators on the world. At every moment, we must be determined. We are here to act - to take the initiative, to protect ourselves, to produce what is necessary to do so, to redeploy new capabilities, to act immediately to protect and assist all our allies when they are threatened,” he said as part of a traditional New Year’s greeting to the Armed Forces at the Istres air force base. Earlier in the day, Macron convened an emergency defence cabinet meeting in Paris to assess the implications of recent remarks by US President Donald Trump, who has again raised the possibility of acquiring - or even ‘seizing’ - Greenland, prompting concern among European allies over security and sovereignty in the Arctic. Macron used the platform to reinforce France’s "full solidarity" with Denmark and to frame Greenland’s security as a matter of European territorial integrity. “Europeans bear a particular responsibility because this territory is part of the European Union and also belongs to one of our NATO allies,” Macron noted, adding that France has decided to join ‘Operation Endurance’, the exercise initiated and launched by Denmark. He said a first contingent of French troops is already on the ground and will be reinforced in the coming days with land, air and maritime contingents. “This is the role France must play: to remain available in assessing threats, to adapt swiftly, and to stand alongside a sovereign state in the defence of its territory,” he noted. The White House has dismissed European troop deployments to the region, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying such moves would not affect President Donald Trump’s ‘goal of acquisition.’ Trump has warned that if the United States does not take control of Greenland, Russia or China would. The debate has intensified following a high-stakes meeting in Washington between US officials and representatives from Denmark and Greenland, which ended in what Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen described as a ‘fundamental disagreement.’"