French President Emmanuel Macron has convened an emergency defence cabinet meeting to discuss US President Donald's Trump's stated intent to acquire Greenland.
In an overnight message on X, Mr Macron said a first group of French military personnel were already headed to Greenland to participate in an exercise organised by Denmark and Greenland, an overseas Danish territory.
The crisis meeting will also discuss the situation in Iran.
Allied nations including Germany, Norway and Sweden have begun deploying troops to Greenland in a show of support to Copenhagen and Nuuk.
The deployment follows a high-stakes meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, indicated that there were still fundamental, if not intractable, differences between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the island's future.
"At Denmark's request, I have decided that France will participate in the joint exercises organised by Denmark in Greenland," Mr Macron said in his X post. "The first French military elements are already en route. Others will follow."
He is due to deliver a New Year's address to the armed forces later today.
Last night, Mr Trump reiterated that the United States needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that "something will work out" with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.
"Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark," Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"And the problem is there's not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there's everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela," he said.
Watch: Donald Trump says he thinks 'something will work out' with Greenland
After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance at the White House yesterday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt said the US and Denmark would form a working group to discuss a broad array of concerns regarding the island that could meet in the coming weeks.
But they also made clear that the US had not budged on its position that it must acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark that is strategically located and rich in minerals. Mr Rasmussen and Ms Motzfeldt described such an outcome as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.
"We didn't manage to change the American position," Mr Rasmussen told reporters outside the Danish embassy in Washington. "It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland."
Mr Trump has not ruled out taking Greenland by force. Before the two-hour meeting, he argued on social media that NATO would become far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the US
"Anything less than that is unacceptable," he wrote.
In recent weeks, he has frequently repeated longstanding claims that acquiring Greenland is a national security imperative and that Denmark is not capable of warding off Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic region.
Greenland and Denmark say the island is not for sale, that threats of force are reckless and security concerns should be resolved among allies. Prominent EU countries have backed Denmark, a member of the NATO alliance.
Ahead of the meeting, Greenland and Denmark said they had begun to increase their military presence in and around Greenland in close cooperation with NATO allies, as part of their promise to beef up Arctic defence.
Late last night, a Danish Air Force plane landed at Nuuk airport and personnel in military fatigues disembarked, footage showed. The Danish military will support the preparation of exercise activity, according to the nation's Joint Arctic Command.
Germany, Sweden and Norway have also announced that they would send military personnel to the island.
The increased military presence would include a range of exercise activities throughout 2026, according to the Danish defence ministry.
Noa Redington, an analyst and former political adviser to previous Danish premier Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said concerns were high in Denmark and Greenland that Ms Motzfeldt and Mr Rasmussen could be treated in the same way as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in a meeting with Mr Trump - and Mr Vance - at the White House in February 2025.
"This is the most important meeting in modern Greenland's history," he said.
European diplomats had said the White House had for months brushed off Denmark's attempts to engage on Greenland at a high level. Yesterday's meeting was the first principal-level encounter between US and Danish officials on the issue.
Greenlandic leaders appear to be shifting their approach to handling the diplomatic crisis. Until recently, they were stressing Greenland's path to independence, but now their public statements put more emphasis on Greenland's unity with Denmark.
"It's not the time to gamble with our right to self-determination, when another country is talking about taking us over," Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Greenland daily Sermitsiaq.
"That doesn't mean that we don't want something in the future. But here and now we are part of the kingdom and we stand with the kingdom," he said.
Mr Trump's desire for Greenland contrasts with Americans' opposition to annexation of the Arctic island, according to anew poll.
Just 17% of Americans approved of his efforts to acquire Greenland, and substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans opposed using military force to annex the island, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Some 47% of respondents disapproved of US efforts to acquire Greenland, while 35% said they were unsure, in the two-day poll which concluded on Tuesday.
