Greenland and the Antarctic are ‘not for sale', Macron tells Trump

Telegraph

7 hours ago

Greenland and the Antarctic are 'not for sale', Emmanuel Macron has declared in a thinly-veiled rebuke to Donald Trump.
The US president is reportedly costing up the price of taking over Greenland and planning to offer more cash than Denmark pays to the autonomous territory.
But at the opening of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, on the French Riviera, Mr Macron said: 'The abysses are not for sale, and neither is Greenland, nor is Antarctica or the high seas.'
The French president also told world leaders that it was a 'necessity' for nations to impose a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
'I think it's madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it. The moratorium on deep-seabed exploitation is an international necessity,' he told the gathering.
His call was joined by Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, who said the world could not let the deepest oceans 'become the wild west'.
The manoeuvres by the Trump administration have brought urgency to the debate around deep-sea mining, as the US moves to fast-track exploration in international waters and sidesteps global efforts to regulate the nascent sector.
According to the Washington Post, the White House is considering whether the US could pay Greenland more than the Danish annual subsidy to the territory, which is about $600 million (£463 million) a year. Trump officials believe that such a payment could 'sweeten the pot' and make it attractive enough to persuade Greenlanders to want to join the US.
The International Seabed Authority, which has jurisdiction over the ocean floor outside national waters, is meeting in July to discuss a global mining code to regulate mining in the ocean depths.
Mr Guterres said he supported these negotiations and urged caution as countries navigate these 'new waters on seabed mining'.
'The deep sea cannot become the wild west,' he said, to applause from the plenary floor.
Mr Macron said a global pact to protect marine life in international waters had received enough support to become law and was 'a done deal'.
The high seas treaty struck in 2023 requires ratifications from 60 signatory countries to enter into force, something France hoped to achieve before Nice.
The French president said about 50 nations had ratified the treaty and 15 others had formally committed to joining them.
This 'allows us to say that the high seas treaty will be implemented,' he predicted.
The Prince of Wales warned over the weekend that humans have reduced Earth's abundant oceans to 'barren deserts', causing a crisis that can no longer be dismissed as 'out of sight, out of mind'.
He also said the destruction of sea forests was 'simply heartbreaking' as he issued a rallying cry for bold action to save the world's oceans and 'change the course of history' during a speech to world leaders.
'Put simply: the ocean is under enormous threat, but it can revive itself,' he told the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco.