US vice president JD Vance will host talks with Denmark in Washington D.C. after repeated threats of a takeover of the territory – despite widespread backlash from European allies.
Trump has been adamant that he needs the territory “right now” and claims it is vital for America’s “national security”, in comments that have caused alarm in NATO countries.
The escalation prompted Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Vivian Moltzfeldt to request a meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio – which Vance has now requested to join.
“US Vice President JD Vance also wanted to participate in the meeting, and he will host the meeting, which will therefore be held at the White House,” Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
“Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion… into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”
It is feared Vance’s inclusion in the talks will heighten tensions as he has historically been vocal in his support for the US seizing the territory from Denmark, a member of NATO.
Last week, he warned Europe that they needed to take Trump “seriously” on his aspiration to acquire it.
”What we’re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” he said.
“What that is, I’ll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic.”
In March last year, he said the country “has not done a good job at keeping Greenland safe” and accused Denmark of “passing it all off” to the Americans.
Several politicians have warned that a US takeover of Greenland would effectively spell the end of NATO, including US democratic senator Chris Murphy who said: “It would be the end of Nato, right? Nato would have an obligation to defend Greenland.”
Trump has had his eyes on the territory since 2019, when he first publicly floated the idea of purchasing the territory from Denmark, which runs it as an autonomous and self-governing entity.
Greenland holds a large and untapped wealth of natural resources, including oil and gas as well as natural earth minerals, zinc, copper, nickel and graphite. Its geographical location, positioned between the North American Arctic and Europe, also makes it appealing to Trump for strategic reasons.
