(Jan 9): France accused the US of wielding trade coercion and sanctions to weaken European unity and sovereignty, as Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot warned that Europe faces mounting external threats.
Adversaries are testing the European Union through “territorial incursions on our eastern flank, trade blackmail, and claims on Greenland, which is not for sale,” Barrot said in a speech to French ambassadors in Paris, appearing to give similar weight to the US’s actions as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The minister said recent US economic measures — including sanctions on European companies and a former EU commissioner — are “a challenge to our ability to choose our own rules on our own soil”.
“If the gauntlet is thrown down, France will take it up,” he warned.
Barrot’s remarks come as Paris and other EU capitals grapple with a series of US actions that have strained transatlantic ties. European leaders have been particularly alarmed by Washington’s unilateral military operation in Venezuela earlier this month — in which US forces captured the country’s president and brought him to face trial at a court in New York.
Outspoken threats from US President Donald Trump about a potential takeover of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, have also alarmed officials across the bloc, drawing rebuke from capitals.
See also: EU nations back Mercosur trade deal over French opposition
Trump has long argued that the US must control Greenland to ensure what he describes as his country’s own security. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week that if Trump were to attack Greenland, it would mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Barrot’s comments come a day after President Emmanuel Macron accused Washington of breaching international law and turning away from its partners.
The US “is an established power, but one that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from international rules,” Macron told French ambassadors in Paris on Thursday.
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