The foreign minister of Denmark will travel to the White House for high stakes talks on Greenland, which US President Donald Trump has vowed to seize from the longtime ally.
Since returning to office nearly a year ago, Mr Trump has mused about taking over the vast, strategic and sparsely populated Arctic island and has sounded emboldened since ordering a 3 January attack in Venezuela that removed its president.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen sought the talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the meeting will take place at the White House after Vice President JD Vance requested to join.
On requesting the meeting, Mr Rasmussen said he was hoping to “clear up certain misunderstandings”.
But it remains to be seen if the Trump administration also sees a misunderstanding and if it wants to back down.Mr Trump, when asked yesterday about Greenland’s leader saying that the island prefers to remain an autonomous territory of Denmark, said: “Well that’s their problem.”
“Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him,” the US president said.
Mr Trump, a real-estate developer, said on Friday that he wanted Greenland “whether they like it or not” and “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way”.
According to Mr Trump, the United States needs Greenland due to the threat of a takeover by Russia or China.
The two rival powers have both stepped up activity in the Arctic, where ice is melting due to climate change, but neither claims Greenland.Incorporating Greenland, which has 57,000 people, would catapult the United States past China and Canada to be the world’s second largest country in land mass after Russia.
Mr Vance visited Greenland in March. He stayed only at Pituffik, the longstanding US base on the island, and did not mingle with local residents.
It has not been announced if the Greenland meeting will be open to the press.
“If the US continues with ‘we have to have Greenland at all cost’, it could be a very short meeting,” said Penny Naas, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Washington think tank.
“If there is a slight nuance to it, it could lead to a different conversation,” she said.
Greenland’s top diplomat Vivian Motzfeldt will join the talks. Her government as well as Denmark have been firm against Mr Trump’s designs.
“One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference ahead of the White House talks.
He added: “Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States.
“Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”
He was speaking alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said it had not been easy to stand up to “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally”.
Denmark has rejected US claims it is not protecting Greenland from Russia and China, recalling that it has invested almost 90 billion kroner (€12bln) to enhance its military presence in the Arctic.
Denmark is a founding member of NATO and its military joined the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq.
Shortly after the White House talks, a senior delegation from the US Congress – mostly Democrats, but with one Republican – will visit Copenhagen to offer solidarity.
“President Trump’s continued threats toward Greenland are unnecessary and would only weaken our NATO alliance,” said Dick Durbin, the number-two Senate Democrat.
