France warned Donald Trump against threatening the "sovereign borders" of the European Union (EU) after the US president-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of 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," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio.
"We are a strong continent. We need to strengthen ourselves more," he added.
Barrot described Greenland as "European territory". Greenland is associated with the EU through Denmark, of which it is a self-governing territory.
In a rambling news conference on Tuesday, Trump refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.
"We need Greenland for national security purposes," he declared.
His comments coincided with a private visit by his son Donald Trump Jr. to the mineral- and oil-rich autonomous Danish territory on Tuesday.
"If you ask me: 'is the United States going to invade Greenland?' the answer is no," said Barrot.
But he added: "We have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest."
"Should we be intimidated? Should we be overcome with worry? Evidently, no.
"We need to wake up and reinforce ourselves, militarily, in competition, in a world where the law of the strongest prevails."
Barrot said he believed that the United States is "inherently not imperialistic" and said he "did not believe" that it is changing.
At the news conference, Trump called the border with the United States' northern neighbour Canada an "artificially drawn line" and promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."
AFP