France's president to meet Denmark, Greenland leaders

France's president will meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Paris on Wednesday for "a working lunch", his office said Tuesday.

Emmanuel Macron will "reaffirm European solidarity and France's support for Denmark, Greenland, their sovereignty and their territorial integrity", the presidency said.

The meeting comes days after US President Donald Trump backed down from threats to seize Greenland, a mineral-rich Arctic island that is an autonomous Danish territory.

The three leaders will discuss "security issues in the Arctic and the economic and social development of Greenland, which France and the European Union are ready to support", Macron's office said.

Faced with Russian threats and US ambitions for Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen have been making rounds with European allies this week including talks in Hamburg and Berlin ahead of visiting Paris Wednesday.

Trump earlier this month had threatened to seize Greenland and impose tariffs on any European countries -- including France, Germany and Britain -- that opposed him.

Trump later backed down on the threat to take the territory after meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte last week.

Trump and Rutte had agreed on what the US leader called a "framework of a future deal", the details of which have not been disclosed.

France has positioned itself at the forefront of European solidarity with Denmark, and is planning to open a consulate in the Greenland's capital Nuuk next month.

On Tuesday, Frederiksen met her German counterpart Friedrich Merz and in an interview with the German ARD network she stressed that while Denmark was open to "deeper and stronger" military cooperation with the United States, the country's sovereignty was a "red line".

"Greenland has said repeatedly that they don't want to be part of the United States," Frederiksen said, according to ARD's German translation of her remarks.