French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday that the European Union would not allow its borders to be attacked.

This came after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland.

“Obviously, it is out of the question that the EU will allow other countries in the world, regardless of which country it may be, to attack their sovereign borders,” Mr Barrot told France Inter radio.

The top French diplomat said the United States was not imperialistic, despite statements made recently by Mr Trump regarding U.S. claims for the Panama Canal, Canada, and Greenland.

The minister added that although Europe is a strong continent, additional measures need to be taken to strengthen the EU.

Greenland was a colony of Denmark until 1953. It remained part of the kingdom after receiving autonomy in 2009.

Mr Trump first announced his claims for the island in 2019, when he was serving his first presidential term.

Soon after winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election, he reiterated his bid to buy the territory, calling it “an absolute necessity” for the United States to own Greenland.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump told a press conference in Mar-a-Lago that he was not considering deploying military force to acquire Canada but could not guarantee the same for Greenland or the Panama Canal.

(RIA Novosti/NAN)