A senior U.S. delegation will meet Danish and Greenlandic officials as President Trump presses the strategic case for U.S. control of Greenland and European governments push back.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to meet Wednesday with senior Danish and Greenlandic officials at the White House to discuss Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory that President Donald Trump has said is essential to U.S. security in the Arctic.
Vance will host the morning meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, according to the U.S. State Department’s public schedule. The White House separately confirmed the meeting.
Rasmussen said Tuesday that the goal was to move the debate into direct talks. “The background for the meeting is to get this whole discussion into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye, and therefore, I have no further comments,” he told Danish media, according to Ritzau.
Rubio had earlier confirmed he would meet Danish officials this week after Rasmussen and Motzfeldt requested an urgent discussion on Greenland.
Trump has repeatedly said the United States must secure Greenland to counter growing influence from China and Russia in the Arctic. On Jan. 9, speaking to reporters at the White House, he said the United States would not tolerate having Russia or China as a neighbor, warning that without U.S. action “Russia or China will take over Greenland.”
When asked about a potential purchase price, Trump said, “I’m not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that. But right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.” He added that the United States would act “either the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Denmark and Greenland have both rejected any suggestion that the territory is for sale. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Monday in Copenhagen that if forced to choose, Greenland would remain with Denmark. “We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the European Union,” he said.
Asked about those remarks, Trump responded that he disagreed and said Nielsen’s stance would become “a big problem for him.”
Opposition to a U.S. takeover has also been voiced by other European governments. Leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in signing a joint statement on Jan. 6 affirming that decisions regarding Greenland rest solely with Denmark and Greenland.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Jan. 7 that Trump and his national security team are actively discussing the purchase of Greenland. She said the president views control of the island as central to deterring Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic and to securing the broader Western Hemisphere.
The meetings with Vance and Rubio come as the administration continues to weigh diplomatic, strategic, and economic considerations tied to Greenland’s location, resources, and role in Arctic security.
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