U.S. Vice-President JD Vance slammed Denmark during a visit to Greenland on Friday, saying it has not done a good job in keeping the semi-autonomous Danish territory and its people safe from incursions by China and Russia, while pledging respect for Greenland’s sovereignty and asking its people “to partner” with the United States.
Vance said the U.S. does not have immediate plans to expand its military presence on the ground in Greenland but will invest in resources including additional naval ships.
“Denmark has not kept pace and devoted the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and other nations,” Vance said.
He gave no details of the alleged incursions.
The U.S. vice-president said Russia, China and other nations are taking an “extraordinary interest” in Arctic passageways, naval routes and minerals in the region, and the U.S. will invest more resources, including naval ships and military icebreakers that will have a greater presence in the country.
With U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to take over Greenland, the country’s prime minister has called a visit by a U.S. delegation a provocation and highly aggressive. The Americans on the trip include national security adviser Mike Waltz and Usha Vance, the vice-president’s wife. Â
Greenland’s new prime minister said the U.S. visit signaled a “lack of respect” and called for unity in the face of “pressure from outside.”
Denmark’s king issued a statement of support on social media. “We live in an altered reality. There should be no doubt that my love for Greenland and my connectedness to the people of Greenland are intact,” King Frederik said.
Vance delivered remarks during his visit to the U.S. military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island, which came just hours after a new broad government coalition that aims to keep ties with Denmark for now, was presented in the capital, Nuuk.
Vance greeted members of the U.S. armed forces shortly after his arrival, thanking them for their service on the remote base located 1,200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.
Vance also pledged the people of Greenland will have “self-determination” and the U.S. will respect its sovereignty.
“We hope that they choose to partner with the United States, because we’re the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security, because their security is very much our security,” Vance said.
During his Greenland visit, Vance also briefly spoke about Canada — but on the subject of tariffs the U.S. has threatened, not the separate annexation threat U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised against his country’s next-door neighbour.
“There is no way that Canada can win a trade war with the United States,” said Vance, when answering a question from a reporter about the impact Americans may feel from the imposition of tariffs on goods from U.S. allies.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance told reporters Friday that he believes U.S. President Donald Trump is on the right track with using tariffs and he believes, ‘there is no way that Canada can win a trade war with the United States.’
‘We need Greenland’: Trump
As Vance’s visit was underway, Trump told reporters at the White House the U.S. needs Greenland to ensure “peace of the entire world.”
“We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security. We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t,” Trump said.
Trump said Greenland’s waterways have “Chinese and Russian ships all over the place” and the U.S. will not rely on Denmark or anybody else to handle the situation.
Denmark and the European Union understand why Greenland is important for peace around the world “and if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them,” Trump added.
The U.S. delegation also includes Vance’s wife, Usha, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The initial plan for the trip had been for Vance’s wife to visit a sled dog race on the island together with Waltz, even though they were not invited by authorities in either Greenland or Denmark.
Public protests and outrage from authorities in both Greenland and Denmark prompted the U.S. delegation to only fly to the military base and not meet the public.
Under the terms of a 1951 agreement, the U.S. is entitled to visit its base whenever it wants, as long as it notifies Greenland and Copenhagen. Pituffik is located along the shortest route from Europe to North America and is vital for the U.S. ballistic missile warning system.
The island, whose capital is closer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and natural gas wealth, but development has been slow and the mining sector has seen very limited U.S. investment. Mining companies operating in Greenland are mostly Australian, Canadian or British.
A White House official has said Greenland has an ample supply of rare earth minerals that would power the next generation of the U.S. economy.
New PM calls for unity
Greenland’s new Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Friday urged political unity.
“At a time when we as a people are under pressure, we must stand together,” Nielsen said at a news conference.
His pro-business party, the Democrats, which favours a gradual independence from Denmark, emerged as the biggest party in a March 11 election.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who had called the initial plans for the U.S. visit “unacceptable,” congratulated Greenland on its new government in a post on Instagram: “I look forward to close co-operation in an unnecessarily conflict-ridden time.”
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,” he told Reuters.
“But 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 said.
Some Greenland residents are also expressing concerns about how willing Trump may be to make his threats a reality.
“It’s all about Trump,” said Jens Ele Nielsen, the father of the new prime minister, when speaking with Britain’s Channel 4 News. “You don’t know what he is going to do tomorrow, maybe.”
‘We are not for sale’
By revising the trip, the Trump administration is seeking to refocus the discussion on the topics it is interested in: the U.S. presence on Greenland, military capabilities available and the wider security of the Arctic, according to Catherine Sendak, head 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 told Reuters.
However, some residents in Nuuk remained angry at the Trump administration ahead of Vance’s visit.
“I am a human. Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale,” Tungutaq Larsen, a filmmaker, told Reuters.
Polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States. Anti-American protesters, some wearing “Make America Go Away” caps and holding “Yankees Go Home” banners, have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in Greenland.
