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US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host a meeting with the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland at the White House on Wednesday, as concerns grow over Donald Trump’s desire to seize control of the Arctic island.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters that he and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt had asked for a meeting with Rubio after the US president ramped up his threats to annex the self-governing Danish territory.
“Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion…into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things,” Rasmussen said in Copenhagen on Tuesday morning.
Tensions have soared between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration continue to push the issue. The US president has repeatedly refused to rule out using military force to take the island.
However, Trump said again last week that he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland. The US will do it “the easy way” or “the hard way,” he said.
Speaking to reporters Air Force One on Sunday, Trump reiterated his argument that the US needs to “take Greenland,” claiming that otherwise Russia or China would do so.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
On Friday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the island’s other political leaders issued a joint statement reiterating that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people and emphasising their “wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends.”
NATO and Greenland’s government said on Monday that they intend to work on strengthening the defence of the semi-autonomous territory.
“Our security and defence belong in NATO. That is a fundamental and firm line,” Nielsen said in a social media post.
Former Danish Minister and European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told Euronews on Tuesday that a US intervention in Greenland represents “the most existential threat to NATO” in its history.
US trip to Denmark
Meanwhile, a bipartisan US congressional delegation will head to Copenhagen later this week in a bid to show unity between the United States and Denmark.
Senator Chris Coons will lead the trip of at least nine members of Congress and the group will be in Copenhagen on Friday and Saturday, according to a congressional aide familiar with the trip’s planning.
Coons said the delegation wants to send a message that “we understand the value of the partnership we have long had with them, and in no way seek to interfere in their internal discussions about the status of Greenland.”
Greenland, which is home to about 57,000 people, is vast with significant mineral resources, most of them untapped, and is considered strategically located.
A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.
Polls indicate that the vast majority of Greenlanders do not want to belong to the US.