BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP)— The European Union (EU) on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump’s claim to Greenland as “wild hypothetical stuff”, while confirming member states would be compelled to defend the territory if it came under attack.

The US president-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of the Arctic island at a press conference Tuesday. He had earlier vowed to slap high tariffs on Denmark if it refused to cede its autonomous territory.

Brussels attempted to avoid being drawn into a war of words on the matter, with the European Commission stressing it was “looking forward” to working with the incoming US administration.

“We are talking about fairly wild hypothetical stuff about an administration that hasn’t come in yet,” a commission spokesman told a press conference about Trump’s remarks.

Another spokeswoman added that the sovereignty of states had to be respected “as a matter of principle”.

Asked if Greenland was covered by a mutual defence clause binding EU members to assist each other in case of attack, commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho said that was the case.

“But we are indeed speaking of something extremely theoretical on which we will not want to elaborate,” she said.

Greenland is a mineral-rich autonomous territory of EU member Denmark and an associated territory of the 27-member bloc.

Trump made his comments in a news conference on Tuesday, where he also said military was possible to secure control of the Panama Canal and economic force against neighbouring Canada.