Carney backs Denmark on Greenland against Trump’s escalating remarks
Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced calls by the U.S. administration to claim sovereignty over Greenland, telling reporters in Paris on Tuesday that the island’s fate rests solely with Denmark.
Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced calls by the U.S. administration to claim sovereignty over Greenland, telling reporters in Paris on Tuesday that the island’s fate rests solely with Denmark.
Carney’s comments followed questions about remarks by Denmark’s prime minister warning that any attempt by U.S. President Donald Trump to seize Greenland by military force would undermine NATO.
“The future of Greenland is a decision for Greenland and for Denmark exclusively,” Carney said. “It’s their decision.”
He said Canada supports Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland, and framed the issue within NATO’s evolving security environment in the Arctic.
“From a NATO context, the way I would frame it is that the western flank of NATO, which would include Greenland [and] the Arctic, given the evolving threat environment, is an area that we as NATO, Canada obviously, importantly, given our geography, need to invest more,” Carney said.
Carney said Canada has been pressing that case in recent years and has begun increasing military investments in the Arctic.
“With our buildup that’s just beginning of our military capabilities, we are making heavy investments in the Arctic,” he said. “We’ll be working with our Nordic partners. We’ll be working through NATO.”
He said the issue would be part of his discussions with the NATO secretary general during meetings in Paris.
In a written statement posted earlier on X, Carney said Canada and Denmark are allies with shared responsibilities in the Arctic.
“Canada and Denmark are allies and partners in our shared responsibility for the security and resilience of the Arctic,” he wrote. “As I reaffirmed to Prime Minister Frederiksen today, Canada will always support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark, including Greenland.”
The statement added that Canada and Denmark will continue working together to support peace in Ukraine and across Europe.
Carney denied seeing comments from Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, who declined to rule out the use of military force in a hypothetical annexation of Greenland.
“I didn’t see the specific comments that Mr. Miller may have made,” Carney said, before emphasizing NATO’s core principles.
“We are partners in NATO. It is a mutual defence alliance,” he said. “When we look at a couple basic principles here, which is self-determination of nations, sovereignty, territorial integrity — and then there is the approach that we have as partners to what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Carney said NATO can provide security across the alliance, including in Greenland, and that allies can adapt plans as threats change.
“As NATO, we can provide security for all of NATO, Greenland included,” he said. “We can operationalize and augment and build additional plans to do that.”
He stressed coordination with all allies, while noting Canada’s closest partnership remains with the United States.
“We stand with Denmark, we stand with Greenland,” Carney said. “We’ll work with everybody to make sure that we move forward together.”
Carney is in Paris for meetings with international leaders focused on ending the war in Ukraine.
I'd back Trump doing for Canada what he just did for Venezuela
maybe strongly encourage would match the hope more closely
First, PM Carney knows very little about integrity. Just look at the lies he told about his work experience during the election campaign.
Second, Carney boasted “We are partners in NATO. It is a mutual defence alliance,” He is either allowing Canada’s military to further decline, so its almost a joke, OR he is leaving a staggering debt to young Canadians, OR both. If the USA withdraws from NATO, then the organization will collapse. If either Russia or China invaded Greenland, only the US military could fight back.