Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, spoke on Wednesday in Paris of the challenges already posed to U.S. alliances by the imminent return of Donald J. Trump to the White House, and said they believed that an American takeover of Greenland was an impossible idea.
But they also asserted that their nations would try to continue working together through potential political turbulence in the coming years, including the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East.
European leaders have been focused in recent days on what many consider inflammatory statements from Mr. Trump and his allies. The president-elect has said he would like to make Greenland part of the United States. The autonomous territory is controlled by Denmark, a NATO ally. And a senior adviser, the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has declared his support for a far-right political party in Germany.
“The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen,” Mr. Blinken said at a news conference with Mr. Barrot. “So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it.”
He prefaced that with advice clearly intended for Mr. Trump: “We’re stronger, we’re more effective, we get better results when we’re working closely with our allies, not saying things that may alienate them.”
Mr. Barrot agreed that he did not think the United States would invade Greenland, but said: “Do we think that we are entering a period in which we’re returning to the law of the jungle? The answer is yes.”
Later, in remarks on Ukraine, he put President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia squarely in that context, too.
“It is a matter of the future of international law,” Mr. Barrot said. “If we accept Ukraine capitulating, we would allow force to prevail. It is a matter of security for the French people, as well as for Europeans.”
Mr. Blinken’s stop in Paris is part of a final, whirlwind diplomatic trip in which he is visiting Asian and European allies. He met with officials in Seoul on Monday, in the middle of the biggest political crisis in South Korea in decades; had talks in Tokyo the next day, soon after the Biden administration blocked a steel-industry merger that Japanese officials wanted; and then flew overnight to Paris, going via Alaska to avoid Russian air space.
Mr. Blinken’s visits to South Korea and Japan were a reflection of the importance of those nations in the U.S. government’s calculus for establishing military deterrence against China and North Korea. Both are key allies that host U.S. military bases and troops. And France has been one of the most important allies in opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and supplying the Ukrainian military with weapons.
Like other European officials, those in Paris are anxious about the return of Mr. Trump, though few were truly surprised by the outcome of the U.S. election.
In Mr. Blinken, President Biden has a diplomat well suited to trying to reassure the French: He grew up in an intellectual milieu in Paris and speaks fluent French, which he deployed here in an ornate room in the Foreign Ministry, in what was almost certain to be his final overseas news conference as secretary of state.
Both Mr. Blinken and Mr. Barrot underscored in their opening remarks the diplomacy their nations have done together during recent crises, notably the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Their nations have also tried to coordinate on policies toward Syria, where rebels recently toppled Bashar al-Assad, the longtime dictator.
“I am delighted that you will continue carrying the torch over the next months on these crucial issues for our two countries,” Mr. Blinken told Mr. Barrot.
The French minister praised Mr. Blinken, using language that appeared to carry veiled criticism of the America represented by Mr. Trump.
“You have embodied the face of the America that we love,” Mr. Barrot said. He spoke of a nation that built an “international order based on law” after World War II through “its lofty outlook, its visceral attachment to the values of freedom.”
At one point, he said, “We survived some 59 American elections, and of course we’ll survive the 60th American election.”
Among their worries, European leaders are concerned about the possibility that Mr. Trump will impose new tariffs in a period of anemic growth in Europe compared with the United States.
Mr. Blinken’s visit comes at a time of intense domestic political division for France. It is a moment that François Bayrou, the centrist prime minister appointed last month, has called the “most difficult” situation for the country since the end of World War II. But for the time being, those divisions mostly affect France’s domestic policy, particularly its inability to pass a budget.
All of this has served to weaken the hand of President Emmanuel Macron at home. But under the French system, Mr. Macron, who considers himself a pragmatic centrist, still holds great sway when it comes to foreign affairs. That has provided a certain continuity in the French posture toward Mr. Trump.
That posture is a mix of concern, caution and Mr. Macron’s belief that he has a clear-eyed view of the American president-elect and his mercurial governing style. Mr. Macron was elected president in 2017, the same year that Mr. Trump took office for his first term.
Over the years, the French president has sought to preserve the French-American relationship while preparing his country — and Europeans more generally — for the possibility that the continent may increasingly have to fend for itself militarily, given Mr. Trump’s skepticism about the U.S. role in NATO.
At a campaign event last year, Mr. Trump implied that he would not abide by NATO’s collective defense provision, known as Article 5, and even said he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that had not contributed sufficiently to the alliance.
During his yearly New Year’s Eve speech, Mr. Macron, reiterating a position he has taken many times before, said that Europe could no longer “delegate to other powers its security and its defense,” vowing to continue to invest in French “military rearmament.”
On Monday, Mr. Macron raised concerns about Mr. Musk, who recently used his social media platform, X, to praise a German far-right party and assail Britain’s Labour Party prime minister.
Without mentioning Mr. Musk’s name, Mr. Macron said: “Ten years ago, if we had said that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary force and would intervene directly in elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined it?”
On Wednesday, when asked at the news conference about Mr. Musk, Mr. Blinken said, “Private citizens in our country can say what they want, what they believe, and everyone else can draw their own conclusions and take their own positions on the matter.”
Mr. Barrot said the same about Mr. Musk. Soon afterward, Mr. Blinken got into a convoy to go to the Élysée Palace to meet with Mr. Macron and to receive the Légion d’Honneur, given by the French to people they consider true friends.
Catherine Porter contributed reporting.
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