US Vice President J.D. Vance was yesterday to visit Greenland at a time when US President Donald Trump is renewing his insistence that Washington should take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
In a scaled-back version of a trip plan that had angered authorities in Greenland and Denmark, Vance was expected to fly to the US military base at nchin the north of the arctic island.
Under the terms of a 1951 agreement, the US is entitled to visit its base whenever it wants, as long as it notifies Greenland and Copenhagen.
Photo: Reuters
The initial plan had been for Vance’s wife, Usha, to visit a popular dog-sled race together with US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz even though they were not invited by authorities in either Greenland or Denmark.
Waltz, who has faced pressure over Trump administration officials’ discussion of sensitive Houthi attack plans on the Signal messaging app, would still be on the Greenland trip, a White House source said.
Greenland acting prime minister Mute Egede called the visit a provocation as the country had yet to form a new government after a March 11 election.
Local media on Thursday reported that Greenland’s Democrats were to announce a four-party coalition government yesterday.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the US visit “unacceptable” although Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen welcomed news of the revised visit as a positive, de-escalating step.
By changing the trip, the Trump administration is seeking to refocus the discussion on the topics it is interested in: the US presence on Greenland, military capabilities available and the wider security of the arctic region, said Catherine Sendak, director of the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank.
“A change of course was needed,” Sendak said. “It is positive, given the very public back and forth between the Danish and Greenland governments and the Trump administration about the intent of the initial visit.”
Still, Trump reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, saying the US needs the strategically island for national and international security.
“So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark,” he said on Wednesday.
Danish Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen condemned what he called Trump’s escalated rhetoric.
The question now is how far Trump is willing to push his idea of taking over the island, said Andreas Oesthagen, a senior researcher on arctic politics and security at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
“It is still unlikely that the United States will use military means to try to get full control over Greenland,” he said.
That would break with many fundamental principles and rules that the US has benefited from and has been a pillar for, Oesthagen said.
However, “it is unfortunately likely that President Trump and Vice President Vance will continue to use other means of pressure, such as ambiguous statements, semi-official visits to Greenland and economic instruments,” he added.
“The real winner in this unnecessary drama is Russia, who gets exactly what they want: discord in the transatlantic relationship,” he said.
Tom Dans, a businessman and former member of the US Arctic Research Commission during Trump’s first presidency, said Vance’s visit would help the Trump administration understand where it can collaborate further with Greenland.
“They’re trying to put the picture together for the future and understand where the best intersections are going to be for US policy and investments to help Greenland,” Dans said.
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