COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Denmark’s foreign minister said Tuesday that he and his Greenlandic counterpart would meet with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump has been talking up the idea of buying or annexing the Arctic territory for years, and further stoked tensions on Sunday by saying that the United States would take the territory “one way or the other.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen that he and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt had requested a meeting with Rubio, and Vance had asked to “take part in that meeting and will host it.”
“Our reason for requesting the meeting has been to move the entire discussion… into a meeting room, where you can look each other in the eye and talk through these issues,” Lokke said following a foreign policy meeting in Denmark’s parliament.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said he would be meeting with NATO’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte, on Monday to discuss Arctic security, also together with Motzfeldt.
Rutte said Monday that the alliance was working on “the next steps” to bolster Arctic security.
Diplomats at NATO say some alliance members have floated the idea of launching a new mission in the region, though no concrete proposals are yet on the table, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, a Republican congressman from Florida introduced a bill Monday to annex Greenland and make it the 51st US state as Trump threatens to seize the Arctic territory.
Representative Randy Fine said his new legislation would authorize Trump “to take whatever steps necessary to annex or acquire Greenland.”
It would also require the Trump administration to send a report to Congress detailing changes to federal law that would allow the Arctic island to become a US state.
“Greenland is not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore — it is a vital national security asset,” Fine said in a statement.
Trump has insisted that Greenland, rich in rare earth mineral resources, needs to be brought under US control, arguing the territory is crucial for national security.
He has said Russia or China will take Greenland if the US does not.
Democrats and Republicans alike have pushed back on his rhetoric, and Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an armed attack on Greenland from the US would spell the end of NATO, the 32-member military alliance.
NATO and Greenland’s government on Monday said they intended to work on strengthening the defence of the territory — a key concern cited by Trump.
