Do not threaten sovereign borders: France & Germany

PARIS: France and Germany on Wednesday warned Donald Trump against threatening "sovereign borders" after the US president-elect refused to rule out military action to take Greenland, an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark.

"There is no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be... attack its sovereign borders," French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. "We are a strong continent. We need to strengthen ourselves more."

In Berlin, German govt spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said "as always, the firm principle applies... that borders must not be moved by force". Barrot described Greenland as "European territory". Greenland is associated with EU through Denmark but withdrew from the European bloc in 1985 after securing autonomy.

"Is US going to invade Greenland? the answer is no," said Barrot. But he added: "We are seeing the return of the law of the strongest...We need to reinforce, militarily." Barrot said he believed US is "inherently not imperialistic". However, a French govt spokeswoman said there was a "form of imperialism" in Trump's comments.