Canada's Indigenous governor general to visit Greenland as Trump renews talk of annexing it

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's Indigenous governor general and its foreign minister will visit Greenland in early February, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.

The visit comes as U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his call for the U.S. to take control of Greenland, the Inuit self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark. Trump has also previously talked about making Canada the 51st state

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Governor General Mary Simon, who is of Inuk descent, are expected to open a consulate in Nuuk, Greenland.

“The future of Greenland and Denmark are decided solely by the people of Denmark,” Carney said while meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at Canada's embassy in Paris.

The island of Greenland, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people.

Simon became Canada's first Indigenous governor general in 2021 and previously served as Canada's ambassador to Denmark. The governor general is the representative of Britain’s King Charles as head of state. The king is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the Commonwealth of former colonies.

The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Denmark's Frederiksen on Tuesday in defending Greenland’s sovereignty in the wake of Trump’s comments about Greenland, which is part of the NATO military alliance. The leaders issued a statement reaffirming the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island “belongs to its people."

Frederiksen and Carney are in Paris for the Coalition of the Willing talks on Ukraine but Carney made a point of meeting with Frederiksen and NATO's secretary general ahead of those meetings.

"You have been very clear in your statement when it comes to the respect for national sovereignty,” Frederiksen said to Carney. “We are both into securing the Arctic region and together with all our NATO allies we can secure the region, so hopefully everybody is willing to work together.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said Monday that Greenland should be part of the United States in spite of a warning by Frederiksen that a U.S. takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO.

Trump has argued the U.S. needs to control Greenland to ensure the security of the NATO territory in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic. “It’s so strategic right now,” he told reporters Sunday.

Carney said he’s made Arctic security a priority.

“We are making progress within NATO but we have to do more,” Carney said at an earlier press conference in Paris.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it's important at this point for Canada to show solidarity with the people of Greenland.

“It is vital for Canada partly because we are a major Arctic country and that Greenland is our neighbor, and partly because we have a strong incentive to stand for international law and against Trump-style bullying and aggression," Béland said.

But Béland said Carney wants to avoid upsetting Trump as the free trade agreement between the two major trading partners is renegotiated this year.

“It’s a tough balancing act for the prime minister,” Béland said.