French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed he spoke by phone with Rubio,who dismissed the idea of a Venezuela-style hit in Greenland.

Barrot told France Inter radio: ‘In the US,there is massive support for the country belonging to Nato – a membership that,from one day to the next,would be compromised by – any form of aggressiveness toward another member of Nato.’

Asked if he has a plan in case Trump does claim Greenland,Barrot said he won’t engage in ‘fiction diplomacy.’