France, Germany warn Trump against threatening EU 'sovereign borders' after Greenland comments

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 control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of 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 told France Inter radio, adding that while he did not believe the US "would invade" Greenland, "we have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest."

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit echoed these concerns, stating that "as always, the firm principle applies... that borders must not be moved by force," pointing to international agreements such as the UN Charter.

Trump, in a news conference on Tuesday, refused to rule out military intervention over Greenland and the Panama Canal, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.

He also called the border with Canada an "artificially drawn line" and promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

Hebestreit refused to be drawn on whether the German government takes Trump's threats against NATO allies Denmark and Canada seriously. "I don't want to assess" the comments, he told a regular news conference, adding only that the German government had "taken note" of them.