Danish foreign minister heads to White House for high-stakes Greenland talks

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen listens to speakers during a meeting after a ceremony to mark the 25th Anniversary Nordic Embassies in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Denmark’s top diplomat visits the White House on Wednesday in a high-stakes attempt to lower the temperature on Greenland, which U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to seize from the longtime ally.

Since returning to office nearly a year ago, Trump has mused about taking over the vast, strategic and sparsely populated Arctic island, and he has sounded emboldened since ordering a deadly Jan. 3 attack in Venezuela that removed its president.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had sought the talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The meeting will take place at the White House, after Vice-President JD Vance requested to join.

On requesting the meeting, Lokke 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 climb down.

Trump, when asked Tuesday 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,” Trump said.

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 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.

With an echo of America’s 19th-century self-conception of possessing a “Manifest Destiny” to expand, Trump has spoken of the need for the United States to grow.

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.

Is co-operation possible?

Vance in March paid an uninvited visit to Greenland. He stayed only at Pituffik, the longstanding U.S. base on the island, and did not mingle with local residents.

Vance is known for his hard edge, which was on display when he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly during a White House meeting in February.

It has not been announced if the Greenland meeting will be open to the press. If not, it would reduce chances of a similar, televised confrontation.

“If the U.S. 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 Trump’s designs.

“One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference ahead of the White House talks.

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 U.S. claims it is not protecting Greenland from Russia and China, recalling that it has invested almost 90 billion kroner (US$14 billion) to beef up 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.

By Shaun Tandon with Camille Bas-Wohlert in Copenhagen