Vice President JD Vance was due to host the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday to discuss the Arctic island’s future. Vance has a particular interest in Greenland and visited there in March. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Vice President JD Vance was set to meet at the White House on Wednesday with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark and their U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to discuss the future of Greenland.
The talks come amid a hardening of positions of Washington and in Copenhagen and Nuuk as NATO countries in Europe scramble to put together a credible security package to close the gaping hole in Greenland’s defense cited by U.S. President Donald Trump as the reason the United States needs to take over the island.
Ahead of the White House meeting, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday the territory wanted to remain part of Denmark.
“If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark and the European Union,” prompting Trump to retort that his stance would be a major problem.
“Well that’s their problem. I disagree with him. I don’t know who he [Nielsen] is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him,” said Trump.
The effort to ramp up the presence of NATO forces on and around the island and across the Arctic region is being led by Britain and Germany, while France confirmed it was establishing a consulate in Greenland due to open Feb. 6.
“It’s a political signal that’s associated with a desire to be more present in Greenland, including in the scientific field,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
“Greenland does not want to be owned, governed or integrated into the United States. Greenland has made the choice of Denmark, NATO, the European Union,” he said.
Negotiations among the Europeans already underway are looking at options, including possible boots on the ground — but no numbers — as well as warships, aircraft, submarines and anti-drone defense systems.
Consensus was said to be coalescing around an Arctic version of the “Baltic Sentry” partnership established by NATO in 2024 to ramp up its military presence in the Baltic Sea in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
German Reservists Association chairman Patrick Sensburg said a European brigade at a minimum — 5,000 troops — should be deployed in Greenland as early as possible, promising Germany would “bear special responsibility in the endeavor,” while benefiting from valuable Arctic experience.
Britain is also in discussions with European allies on deterring with Russian and Chinese interest in Greenland by stationing forces in Greenland, with the U.K.-based defense think-tank RUSI saying that with major NATO “Cold Response” exercises due to get underway in the High North on March 9, they were already deploying ships and other maritime forces into the region.
The Norwegian-led war games will see 20,000-25,000 troops from as many as 15 of NATO’s 32-member nations train on land. sea and air in the harsh, arctic conditions of the Arctic winter to practice to defend Norway and NATO’s northern flank.
Meanwhile, battle lines over the issue were being drawn on Capitol Hill with senators from both sides of the aisle sponsoring legislation prohibiting the U.S. military from using funds appropriated by Congress to occupy or annex or mount military operations against any NATO territory, including.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., authored a similar measure in the House on Monday, which is backed by a group comprising both Democrats and Republicans, in response to a Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act, an effort by Rep. Randy Fine R-Fla., to authorize Trump to acquire the island.
Fine’s bill would also mandate a report to be prepared for Congress outlining the changes to federal law required to turn Greenland into America’s 51st state.
Trump first highlighted the critical status of Greenland in relation to the national security of the United States in his first term but the thinking goes back as far as World War II when U.S. forces occupied the island to prevent it being taken over by Nazi Germany, which had already overrun Denmark.
Current geopolitics has seen Trump’s interest in Greenland grow exponentially since coming into office again in January 2025, with him saying that the United States is now out of options and that if it doesn’t take over the island, Russia or China will.
