Denmark, Greenland envoys meet with White House officials over Trump’s ‘takeover’ call

Denmark and Greenland’s envoys to Washington have begun an aggressive effort to urge US lawmakers as well as key officials in the Trump administration to back away from President Donald Trump’s call to “take control” of the strategic Arctic island.

Denmark’s ambassador, Jesper Møller-Sorensen, and Jakob Isbosthesen, Greenland’s top representative in Washington, met Thursday with White House National Security Council officials to discuss Trump’s renewed push to seize Greenland, possibly by military force, according to Danish government officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

The envoys also held a series of meetings this week with US lawmakers, as they look to get help in convincing Trump to back down from his threat.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet Danish officials next week.

Trump said, in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday, that he should own all of Greenland instead of just exercising a long-term treaty that gives the United States broad freedom to use Greenland for military sites.

Trump told the newspaper, “I think ownership gives you something you can’t do. You’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get just by signing a document.”

The United States is a party to a 1951 treaty that gives it broad rights to establish military bases there with the approval of Denmark and Greenland.

Meanwhile, US Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters that European leaders should “take the US president seriously” as he portrayed the issue as one of defence.

“What we are asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass seriously, because if they don’t, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said.

Danish officials were optimistic about upcoming talks with Rubio in Washington.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish radio station DR: “This is the required dialogue, at the request of the government and the Greenland government.”

Greenland, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 people, most of whom are Inuit.

Vance criticizes Denmark

Vance said on Wednesday that Denmark had “clearly” not done an adequate job in securing Greenland and that Trump was “willing to go as far as he can” to defend US interests in the Arctic.

In an interview with Fox News, Vance repeated Trump’s claim that Greenland is important to both the United States and global national security because “the entire missile defense infrastructure depends in part on Greenland.”

He said the fact that Denmark was a loyal military ally of the United States during World War II and the recent “War on Terror” does not necessarily mean it is doing enough to secure Greenland today.

“Just because you did something smart 25 years ago doesn’t mean you can’t do something stupid now,” Vance said, adding that Trump “is saying very clearly: You’re not doing a good job on Greenland.”

The right to self-determination

Watch the clip in the player above.

Earlier, Rubio told a select group of US lawmakers that the Republican administration’s intention is to eventually buy Greenland, rather than using military force.

“Many Greenlanders feel that the statements made are disrespectful,” Aja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician in the Danish parliament, told the Associated Press. “Many also feel that these conversations are being discussed over their heads. We have a saying in Greenland, ‘Nothing about Greenland, without Greenland.'”

She said most Greenlanders “want greater self-determination, including independence” but also want “strengthened cooperation with our partners” on security and business development as long as this is based on “mutual respect and recognition of our right to self-determination”.

Chemnitz denied Trump’s claims that Greenland is “covered everywhere by Russian and Chinese ships.”

She added that Greenland “is a long-term ally and partner of the United States and we have a common interest in stability, security and responsible cooperation in the Arctic.” “There is an agreement with the United States that allows them access to bases in Greenland if necessary.”

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the “law of the strongest” that makes people “wonder whether Greenland will be invaded.”

In a speech to French ambassadors at the Elysee Palace on Thursday, Macron said: “It is the greatest chaos, the law of the strongest, and ordinary people are wondering whether Greenland will be invaded, whether Canada will be under threat of becoming the 51st state (of the United States) or whether Taiwan will be further encircled.”

He pointed to an “increasingly dysfunctional” world in which great powers, including the United States and China, face “a real temptation to divide the world among themselves.”

Macron said that the United States is “gradually moving away from some of its allies and freeing itself from international rules.”

US surveillance operations

“Greenland belongs to its people,” European Council President Antonio Costa said on Wednesday. “No decision on Denmark or Greenland can be made without Denmark, or without Greenland. They have the strong support and full solidarity of the European Union.”

The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday in defending Greenland’s sovereignty in the wake of Trump’s comments about Greenland, which is part of the NATO military alliance.

After Vance’s visit to Greenland last year, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen released a video detailing the 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. Since 1945, the U.S. military presence in Greenland has declined from thousands of soldiers across 17 bases and facilities on the island, to the remote Pitovik Space Base in the northwest, which today houses about 200 soldiers, Rasmussen said. The base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the United States and NATO.

Rasmussen said the 1951 agreement “provides a significant opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland.” “If that’s what you want, let’s discuss it.”

“Military defense of Greenland”

Last year, the Danish Parliament approved a draft law allowing the establishment of American military bases on Danish territory. The legislation expands a previous military agreement, reached in 2023 with the Biden administration, under which US forces have broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.

Denmark is moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic.

Last year, the government announced a 14.6 billion kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another autonomous region of Denmark, to “improve surveillance capabilities and maintain sovereignty in the region.”

The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance aircraft, and satellite capability.

The Danish Joint Arctic Command, headquartered in Nuuk, is responsible for “monitoring, asserting sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations all over the island.

Also stationed in Greenland is the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness.

Associated Press writers Seung-Min Kim in Washington and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.