A visit this week to Greenland by a US delegation – including Vice President JD Vance, his wife and other officials – has provoked angry reactions in Greenland and Denmark, which governs the foreign and defense policies of the semiautonomous island [Getty
US Vice President JD Vance is on Friday due to tour a US military base in Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation as President Donald Trump’s bids to annex the strategically-placed, resource-rich Danish territory.
Trump has insisted the United States needs the vast Arctic island for national and international security, and has refused to rule out the use of force to get it.
“We have to have it,” he reiterated on Wednesday.
Vance and his wife Usha left Washington on board Air Force Two early Friday, accompanied by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Utah Senator Mike Lee and former Homeland Security Advisor Julia Nesheiwat, who is Waltz’s wife, according to journalists on board the flight.
They will visit the US-run Pituffik Space Base in northwest of the island, meet US Space Force members and “check out what’s going on with the security” of Greenland, Vance said in a video message this week.
Danish and Greenlandic officials, backed by the European Union, have insisted the United States will not get Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has denounced US plans to visit the Arctic island uninvited — for what was initially a broader visit to Greenlandic society — as “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland and Denmark.
A majority of Greenlanders oppose US annexation, according to a January poll.
The vice president angered Danes in early February when he said Denmark was “not doing its job (protecting Greenland), and it’s not being a good ally”.
A fuming Frederiksen quickly retorted that Denmark had long been a loyal US ally, fighting alongside the Americans “for many, many decades”, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Key base
The Pituffik base is an essential part of Washington’s missile defence infrastructure, its location in the Arctic putting it on the shortest route for missiles fired from Russia at the United States.
Known as Thule Air Base until 2023, the base served as a warning post for possible attacks from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
It is also a strategic location for air and submarine surveillance in the northern hemisphere, which Washington claims Denmark has neglected.
Vance is “right in that we didn’t meet the American wishes for an increased presence, but we have taken steps towards meeting that wish”, Marc Jacobsen, a senior lecturer at the Royal Danish Defence College, told AFP.
He said Washington needed to present more specific demands if it wanted a proper Danish response.
In January, Copenhagen said it would allocate almost $2 billion to beef up its presence in the Arctic and north Atlantic, acquiring specialised vessels and surveillance equipment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he considered Trump’s plans for Greenland “serious”, and expressed concern that “NATO countries, in general, are increasingly designating the far north as a springboard for possible conflicts”.
Frosty response
Greenland is home to 57,000 people, most of them Inuits, and is believed to hold massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, though oil and uranium exploration are banned.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former mining executive, told Fox News on Thursday he hoped the United States and Greenland could cooperate on mining to “bring jobs and economic opportunity to Greenland and critical minerals and resources to the United States”.
Trump’s desire to take over the ice-covered territory, which is seeking independence from Denmark, has been categorically rejected by Greenlanders, their politicians and Danish officials.
Denmark’s King Frederik, who took part in a four-month, 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) ski expedition across Greenland in 2000, spoke out Friday for the first time since Trump’s return to the White House.
“There should be no doubt about my love for Greenland, and my connection to the Greenlandic people is intact,” he told Danish television TV2.
While all of Greenland’s political parties are in favour of independence, none of them supports the idea of joining the United States.
Greenland is in political flux after elections earlier this month, and only has a transitional government, with parties still in talks to form a new coalition administration.
“Our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
The government had not “sent out any invitations for visits, private or official”, he added.
Initially, Vance’s wife Usha was to travel alone to Greenland with her son and attend a dogsled race in the town of Sisimiut.
Locals said they had planned to give her a frosty reception, with several protests planned.
The visit to Sisimiut was then cancelled and replaced with the visit to the military base.
Greenland forms new government hours before visit
Greenland presented a new government coalition agreement on Friday, just hours before a visit by U.S. Vice President JD Vance to the Arctic island.
The new majority government will be headed by Democrats leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who had urged parties to set aside disagreements and form a broad coalition to show unity amid Trump’s campaign to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The pro-business Democrats, who favour gradual independence from Denmark, emerged as the biggest party, tripling their representation to 10 seats in a March 11 general election.
