French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday, while top EU officials at a defense summit in Brussels called for a proactive response to US President Donald Trump's recent Greenland demands.

The leaders called for an urgent European response, taking greater responsibility for its own security, albeit while maintaining the close defense ties with the US touted by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte earlier in the week.

Macron calls Greenland rift a 'wake-up call'

Macron said in Paris that the arguments over Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week needed to prompt an "awakening" in Europe.

He said this would have to focus "on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, and on the fight against global warming."

Speaking to Denmark's Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Macron also confirmed France's solidarity and "its commitment to your sovereignty and territorial integrity."

'Greenland will never forget'

Switching briefly to the indigenous Greenlandic language, Macron said: "Greenland is not for sale, nor is it up for grabs. The Greenlanders will decide their own future."

He then addressed Frederiksen in Danish, saying Paris would continue to stand "side-by-side" with Copenhagen.

Denmark's Frederiksen, who visited Berlin and Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday, said that despite the turbulence, recent weeks had shown Europe could stand up for itself.

"The world order as we have known it is under pressure, it's changing rapidly," she said. "Maybe it is gone."

Prior to Wednesday's joint press conference, Frederiksen had also said it was necessary for Europe to improve its defense "now" to become less reliant on US protection.

Meanwhile, Greenland's 34-year-old Prime Minister Nielsen thanked Macron for "standing by us without hesitation."

"We in Greenland will not forget it," he said.

EU's Kallas says 'Europe needs to adapt to new realities'

Trump has "shaken the transatlantic relationship to its foundation," the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said at the European Defense Agency's annual conference on Wednesday.

While Europe had sought to stay on Trump's good side in the hope of maintaining US support for Ukraine, Trump's threats to take Greenland from NATO ally Denmark sparked a change in tone from European leaders.

"Let me be clear: we want strong transatlantic ties. The US will remain Europe's partner and ally," Kallas said. "But Europe needs to adapt to the new realities. Europe is no longer Washington's primary center of gravity."

"This shift has been ongoing for a while. It is structural, not temporary. It means that Europe must step up — no great power in history has outsourced its survival and survived."

She went on to say that for NATO to maintain its strength, it "needs to become more European" and to achieve this, "Europe must act."

"The risk of a full-blown return to coercive power politics, spheres of influence and a world where might makes right, is very real," Kallas warned, insisting that Europe "must acknowledge that this tectonic shift is here to stay."

NATO's Rutte stresses continued importance of US

Kallas, who previously served as the prime minister of Estonia, has been a leading voice in support of Ukraine and long opposed European relations with Russia before the 2022 invasion.

However, her comments approached the issue from the opposite angle to those made by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday who warned that Europe could not fend off Russian aggression without the US.

Rutte, speaking in the European Parliament, said the bloc would have to double its defense spending targets — currently at 5% — if it wanted to replace the US nuclear umbrella.

He went on to say, "Putin will love it" if Europe seeks to build up its own forces as a means to get rid of US support. Instead, he called for continued cooperation as Europeans boost defense spending and take steps to strengthen their defense industries. 

Edited by: Sean Sinico