NUUK, Jan 14 (Reuters) – The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Wednesday following weeks of threats by President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump has said the strategically located and mineral-rich island is vital to U.S. security and the United States must own it to prevent Russia or China occupying it.
Greenland and Denmark say the island is not for sale, threats of force are reckless and security concerns should be resolved among allies. Prominent EU countries have backed Denmark.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt were expected to show a united front in the meeting with Vance and other U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We choose the Greenland we know today – as part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Motzfeldt said in a statement released by the Danish ambassador to the U.S. on Tuesday.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also reiterated Greenland’s commitment to Denmark, calling the situation “a geopolitical crisis” and rejecting the prospect of becoming a U.S. territory.
Trump, when asked by reporters late on Tuesday, dismissed Nielsen’s statement that Greenland prefers to remain part of Denmark.
“That’s their problem. I disagree with them. I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him,” Trump said.
White House officials have been discussing various plans to bring Greenland under U.S. control, including potential use of the U.S. military and lump-sum payments to Greenlanders to convince them.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said the hardest part in the dispute over Greenland’s future may lie ahead.
Denmark and Greenland had originally sought a meeting with Rubio, hoping to have a discussion among top diplomats on resolving the crisis between the two NATO allies.
But Denmark’s Rasmussen said Vance had also wanted to participate and that the vice president would host the meeting himself, at the White House.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Nuuk and Terje Solsvik in Oslo)
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