"Inviolability Of Borders Applies To All": Germany On Trump's Greenland Threat

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Saturday that the principle of sovereign borders must be protected, days after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out force to seize Greenland.

Speaking to a congress of his Social Democrat party ahead of a general election next month, Scholz said: "The principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country, regardless of whether it's in the East or the West," referring also to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"This is a principle that every state must abide by, whether it's a small state or a big and powerful one," he said.

"No country is the backyard of another, no country should have to fear its bigger neighbours. That is a central part of what we call Western values."

Trump sparked alarm bells on Tuesday when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both of which he has said he wants the United States to control.

That prompted Scholz to tell a hastily called press conference on Wednesday that Trump had caused "notable incomprehension" among EU leaders.

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