Macron expresses support for Greenland in Greenlandic and Danish – video
We also know have a video of Macron’s remarks at his press conference with the Danish and Greenlandic prime ministers earlier today.
Macron said that a recent standoff with the US over Greenland was “a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe”, repeating his call for Europe to assert its “sovereignty” in relation to other global powers.
He even said a few things in Greenlandic, stressing: “Greenland is not for sale,” before switching to Danish to express his solidarity with Denmark.
Watch it here:
Key events
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Rubio confident of ‘positive resolution’ on Greenland through ‘professional’ talks, avoiding ‘media circus’
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Nato needs to be reimagined with Europe showing more capabilities, US Rubio says
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At least three dead, half million without electricity as Storm Kristin hits Portugal
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Slovakia’s Fico denies reports suggesting he was concerned about Trump’s ‘psychological state’
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Macron expresses support for Greenland in Greenlandic and Danish – video
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Dutch parties strike minority coalition deal three months after D66 election upset
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‘Work it harder, make it better, do it faster’ to position Europe for new ‘rapidly changing’ world, Denmark’s Frederiksen says
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Rearming Europe should be top priority to reduce reliance on US, Denmark’s Frederiksen says
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French former senator found guilty of drugging MP with intent to sexually assault her
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Hungarian prosecutors charge liberal Budapest mayor over Pride march
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Kremlin rejects US report suggesting Ukraine invasion has led to 1.2 million Russian casualties
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Five dead after Russian drone strike on passenger train in Ukraine
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‘Russia does not want peace with Europe,’ Frederiksen warns, as she urges EU, US unity
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‘World order as we know it is over’ and not coming back, Denmark’s Frederiksen says
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EU needs to ‘rapidly’ build its defence ‘independence’ and strengthen European Nato arm, says defence chief
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‘It cannot be that one country’s veto defines policy for others,’ EU’s Kallas says
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Nato ‘needs to become more European to maintain strength,’ EU’s Kallas says
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Morning opening: EU needs to step up or risk its future in this new dangerous world that is emerging, EU’s Kallas warns
Rubio confident of ‘positive resolution’ on Greenland through ‘professional’ talks, avoiding ‘media circus’
Rubio also spoke about the US administration’s interest in Greenland, stressing “we’re in a good place right now,” and that he hoped for a positive resolution with Denmark.
“We had excellent meetings with the secretary general of Nato. In fact, even as I speak to you now, there’ll be some technical level meetings between us and our partners in Greenland and Denmark on this issue,” he said.
Rubio stressed Greenland was a “longstanding” national security interest for the US, but he was confident “we are going to get something positive done.”
“We’re going to begin that process in a very professional, straightforward way. It begins today, and it’ll be a regular process.
We’re going to try to do it in a way that isn’t like a media circus every time these conversations happen, because we think that creates, more flexibility on both sides to arrive at a positive outcome. And I think we’re going to get there.”
Nato needs to be reimagined with Europe showing more capabilities, US Rubio says
And speaking on US predictability, US state secretary Marco Rubio has just said that Nato needs to be “reimagined” in comments that are likely to raise further eyebrows in Europe.
He said Nato needed to change with European partners radically increasing their investment in defence capabilities to offer meaningful role, and not just an “irrelevant” deployment which still needs the US backstop attached to it.
He told the US Senate:
“The reason why it has to be reimagined is not because its purpose is reimagined, its capabilities have to be reimagined.
Let me give you as a point of example. There’s a lot of talk about security guarantees, and it’s something that there’s general agreement about now with the case of Ukraine.
But those security guarantees basically involve the deployment of a handful of European troops, primarily French and UK, and then a US backstop. But in fact, the security guarantee is the US backstop.
And I’m not diminishing the fact that some countries in Europe are willing to place troops in a post-war Ukraine. What I’m pointing out is that is irrelevant without the US backstop.
The reason why you need such a strong US backstop is because our allies and our partners have not invested enough in their own defence capabilities over the last 20 or 30 years.
Now, hopefully that’s going to change. Hopefully that is changing. And in some cases, and in some particular countries, it’s already changed.
But this is a fact that we cannot ignore. Nato is going to be stronger if our allies are more capable, especially, … and here’s the reality whether we want to accept it or not, we [the US] have interests all over the world. …
And the stronger our partners are in Nato, the more flexibility the United States will have to secure our interests in different parts of the world.
That’s not an abandonment of Nato, that is a reality of the 21st century, and the world is changing.”
Jakub Krupa
One more thing on these alleged comments by Fico on Trump.
Perhaps it’s worth noting that, regardless of Fico’s denials today, Andrej Danko, chairman of the Slovak National Party which is in coalition with Fico, said something similar last week – way before the Politico story.
Speaking to journalists over a week ago, Danko claimed that Fico rushed to meet with France’s Emmanuel Macron quickly after his return from the US because he was so “scared” with what he heard meeting with Trump, prompting him to look for allies elsewhere – without offering much detail.
(Asked about it at a press conference at the time, Fico declined to comment at all.)
At least three dead, half million without electricity as Storm Kristin hits Portugal
Storm Kristin killed at least three people and left over 800,000 residents of central and northern Portugal without electricity, as it toppled trees, damaged homes, and disrupted road and rail traffic before moving inland to Spain, Reuters reported.
One person died when a tree fell on their car in Vila Franca de Xira, on the outskirts of Lisbon, according to emergency services. Two more were killed in the central district of Leiria – one of the most affected areas – according to the local council.
Civil protection authorities reported more than 3,000 weather-related incidents, triggered by wind gusts of up to 150 km/h (93 mph), heavy rain and snowfall in the country of nearly 11 million people.
Grid operator E-Redes said technical teams were working to re-establish power supplies to about half a million customers in the afternoon, while earlier as many as 855,000 had been left without electricity.
Slovakia’s Fico denies reports suggesting he was concerned about Trump’s ‘psychological state’
Meanwhile, Politico has published a report suggesting that Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico reportedly told fellow EU leaders that a meeting with Donald Trump left him shocked by the US president’s state of mind – a claim publicly denied by Fico.
According to five EU diplomats briefed on the talks on the margin of the last EU summit who spoke with Politico, Fico reportedly told other leaders he was concerned about the US president’s “psychological state,” saying he came across as “dangerous” in their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.
(You won’t be surprised that’s not how Fico described the talks in public, saying at the time that they, erm, were a sign of respect and trust between the two of them.)
But after the story broke, Fico said he “strongly reject the lies of the hateful, pro-Brussels liberal portal Politico,” flatly denying that he spoke about Trump with other leaders – or, in fact, that he even spoke at the event (which he prominently criticised) at all.
Fico claimed that Politico wanted to “destroy the constructive relationships that Slovakia has with all four corners of the world,” saying that he’s not normally shy to make his critical views on other leaders public (he’s a longstanding critic of EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas).
But the story has already made some waves, with German chancellor Friedrich Merz unexpectedly also getting asked about his assessment of Trump’s fitness.
Speaking in Berlin, he said he had “no reason whatsoever to doubt his health.”
“He will turn 80 years old in June, but I get the impression that he is fully capable of carrying out his duties. I see no indication that this should be otherwise,” the chancellor added.
Macron expresses support for Greenland in Greenlandic and Danish – video
We also know have a video of Macron’s remarks at his press conference with the Danish and Greenlandic prime ministers earlier today.
Macron said that a recent standoff with the US over Greenland was “a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe”, repeating his call for Europe to assert its “sovereignty” in relation to other global powers.
He even said a few things in Greenlandic, stressing: “Greenland is not for sale,” before switching to Danish to express his solidarity with Denmark.
Watch it here:
Ministers from six leading European economies, including Germany and France, will discuss on Wednesday plans to push ahead with joint projects without the rest of the EU, to facilitate agile decision-making at a time of geopolitical upheaval.
The video conference, which was scheduled for 2pm GMT and will also include finance and economy ministers from Poland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, follows ridicule from officials in US president Donald Trump’s administration over the time it takes the 27-country bloc to make decisions.
The idea of forging ad-hoc coalitions allowing some EU countries to pursue projects without the need for agreement from all of them has long tempted some members and has already been applied to key projects including the euro currency, Reuters reported.
But it is gaining new momentum as Europe confronts widening insecurity, sluggish growth and deep political divergences.
“Now is the time for a Europe of two speeds,” German finance minister Lars Klingbeil said on Tuesday in Berlin.
German prosecutors and police searched Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt and its office in Berlin on Wednesday in an investigation over suspected money laundering offences, officials said.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the probe is connected to suspected offences in the bank’s dealings with companies linked to the Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich.
Prosecutors confirmed the raids but did not say who was being targeted.
The Frankfurt prosecutors’ office said it was carrying out an “investigation into unknown responsible parties and employees of Deutsche Bank on suspicion of money laundering … and related additional allegations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act”.
“In the past, Deutsche Bank maintained business relationships with foreign companies that … are themselves suspected of having been used for the purpose of money laundering,” a spokesman for the office said in a statement to AFP.
It said the investigation was being carried out by a specialist economic crime unit along with the federal police.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bank confirmed the raids, and the bank said it was “cooperating fully with prosecutors” but refused to comment further.
Trilateral negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States to reach a resolution on the war in Ukraine are set to resume in Abu Dhabi on 1 February, Russia’s Interfax news agency cited the Kremlin as saying on Wednesday.
A first round of three-way talks on ending the four-year war took place in the same location last weekend.
Jakub Krupa
I think the outgoing Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, will be particularly pleased about the conclusion of the coalition talks, as that means he will still have a few months to prepare for that Sydney Marathon in August that he had signed up for before the election.
He won’t even have to use an alias this time (in 2024, he entered the Amsterdam half marathon as “Peter Jansen”).
Dutch parties strike minority coalition deal three months after D66 election upset
Jon Henley
Europe correspondent
The leaders of three Dutch political parties have agreed a new coalition deal, paving the way for a rare minority government in the Netherlands almost three months after elections that produced an upset victory for the centrist D66 party.
The liberal-progressive, pro-European party, led by the probable new prime minister, Rob Jetten, will join up with the conservative Christian Democrats and the right-wing VVD in a government that holds only 66 seats in the 150-seat lower house.
“We’re incredibly eager to get started,” said Jetten, 38, who will become the country’s youngest ever premier, announcing the accord on Tuesday night. “We’re going to do it as a three-party coalition, but we’d also like to work with other parties.”
The new cabinet should now be formally sworn in by mid-February, but will have to work with opposition parties in the fragmented Dutch parliament to pass legislation. It also lacks a majority in the senate, which can block laws passed by the lower house.
The three parties made the highly unusual choice to govern without a majority after the VVD leader, Dilan Yeşilgöz, refused from the outset to consider including the left-leaning GroenLinks/PvdA alliance, which won 20 seats, describing it as too radical.
‘Work it harder, make it better, do it faster’ to position Europe for new ‘rapidly changing’ world, Denmark’s Frederiksen says
France’s Emmanuel Macron (yes, still wearing his now-iconic sunglasses) has appeared alongside the Danish and Greenlandic prime ministers at the Élysée Palace in Paris to highlight France’s solidarity amid continuing US president Donald Trump’s interest in Greenland.
The three leaders met in Paris as part of the broader push to rally support for Greenland, after meeting with German chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen thanked Macron for continuing support, including his last year’s visit to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, and for France’s willingness to get involved in strengthening the Arctic security.
She stressed that “in a situation where the world order, as we have known, it is under pressure, changing rapidly [or] maybe it’s gone, we need a stronger Europe than ever.”
“For me, the way forward is quite clear. It’s up to us, and only up to us Europeans to create a confident and prosperous Europe of tomorrow,” she said.
In pointed remarks, she said that the last few weeks of standoff with Trump showed that “if somebody is threatening us from outside, we will stand up together and we will respond.”
Greenland’s Jens-Frederik Nielsen struck similar tones, saying:
“Our close cooperation in this situation is not only about Greenland. It goes beyond Greenland. For us, this is about the values in the world: our democracy, respect for international law and order, integrity.”
But Frederiksen ended on a slightly lighter note, with a reference to the French electronic music duo Daft Punk’s hit Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, using it to describe how Europe needs to get stronger and more independent from the US:
“It is a decisive moment for Europe … and it works. … To use the words of one of your most famous music groups: we must work it harder, make it better, do it faster, and make us stronger.”
(Yes, you do want to listen to this song now – even better, the military Bastille Day version from a few years ago, performed in front of no one else but Donald Trump himself.)
Rearming Europe should be top priority to reduce reliance on US, Denmark’s Frederiksen says
We are now getting more quotes from Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen after her appearance at the Sciences Po university in Paris earlier today.
Asked about Nato secretary general Mark Rutte’s comments about Europe’s ability to defend itself, Frederiksen conceded it would be “extremely difficult” with how things are at the moment, AFP reported.
She said that’s because “when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US.”
But she insisted that “I think we’re able to do more than what is being said publicly right now.”
The Danish PM stressed, however, that rearming Europe should be “the most important thing” for European leaders, adding that 2035 would be “too late” as a target.
