European allies working on plan if US acts on acquiring Greenland: report
European allies are working together on a plan if the Trump administration acts on acquiring Greenland, a report said Wednesday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio that the subject will be raised at a meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland.
"We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners," Barrot said, according to Reuters.
A German government source also told Reuters that Germany is "closely working together with other European countries and Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland."
The White House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump views acquiring Greenland as a national security priority and that the use of the U.S. military remains an option as his administration weighs how to pursue control of the Arctic territory.
"President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News.
"The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal," she added.
When asked for a response Wednesday to the Reuters report, the White House referred Fox News Digital to Leavitt's remarks.
TRUMP GREENLAND TAKEOVER WOULD END NATO, DENMARK ASSERTS
Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that the U.S. needs Greenland, a Danish territory, for "national security."
European and Nordic leaders pushed back against the comments, with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States Jesper Møller Sørensen underscoring their support for Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and stressing that its future must be determined by Greenland and Denmark alone.
A senior European official told Reuters on Wednesday that Denmark must lead any effort to coordinate a response and "the Danes have yet to communicate to their European allies what kind of concrete support they wish to receive."
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.