France's Macron to visit Greenland to stop US 'preying' on it
"I'm going to say: 'We're here, and we're ready to reinvest ourselves so that there is no preying'" on it, Macron said a few days ahead of his trip.
Trump has repeatedly said the US needs the strategically located, resource-rich Arctic island for security reasons, and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.
A majority in Greenland favours independence in the long term, and both Danish and Greenlandic leaders have insisted that the autonomous territory must decide its own future. They have repeatedly said Washington "will never get Greenland".
READ ALSO:
Trump says US will 'go as far as we have to' to take Greenland
The deep sea, Greenland and Antarctica are "not for sale", Macron said on Monday at a UN oceans summit, remarks clearly directed at Trump's expansionist claims.
US Vice President
JD Vance conducted a visit to Greenland in March
that was seen as a provocation by both Nuuk and Copenhagen.
But Macron is travelling at the invitation of the territory's prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish leader Mette Frederiksen.
Macron's trip will be "a signal in itself made at the request of Danish and Greenlandic authorities", his office said.
He will carry a message of "European solidarity and support for Greenland's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it added.
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Arctic security
The French president would also discuss "Arctic security", and how to include the territory in "European action" to contribute to its development, while "respecting its sovereignty".
Copenhagen in January announced a $2-billion plan to boost its military presence in the Arctic region.
On the world's largest island, 80 percent of which is ice, Macron will also discuss the alarming melting of glaciers, his team said.
Five of the last six years have seen the most rapid glacier retreat on record, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said.
Beyond the continental ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, more than 275,000 glaciers worldwide cover approximately 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 square miles), the WMO said.
But they are rapidly shrinking due to climate change, contributing to rising sea levels.
Macron will fly over a glacier as part of his trip, during which he will at all times be accompanied by both the Greenlandic and Danish premiers.
His office said France wished to "massively reinvest in the knowledge of these ecosystems" in the tradition of French explorer Paul-Emile Victor, who visited the area from the 1930s onwards.
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He will then visit an EU-funded hydroelectric station, followed by a meeting with both leaders on a Danish helicopter carrier.
Macron will travel on to Canada after the Greenland visit for a G7 summit.
During his visit to the Pituffik military base, Vance in late March castigated Denmark for not having "done a good job by the people of Greenland", alleging they had neglected security.
Polls indicate that the vast majority of the island's 57,000 inhabitants want to become independent from Denmark -- but do not wish to become part of the United States.
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