Representatives of Denmark and Greenland have launched a concerted effort to try to persuade US lawmakers and key Trump administration officials to back off from President Donald Trump’s call for a takeover of the strategic Arctic island. Danish ambassador, Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Jacob Isbosethsen, Greenland’s chief representative to Washington, met with White House National Security Council officials yesterday to discuss Trump’s latest moves to acquire Greenland by means that, according to Danish government sources not authorised to comment publicly, might even include military force.
The envoys also met with US lawmakers during the week to enlist their support in dissuading Trump from pursuing his threat.
Yesterday, in a New York Times interview, Trump was adamant that the 1951 treaty giving the US broad rights to set up military bases on the island with the consent of Denmark and Greenland was not sufficient. “Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document,” Trump told the newspaper.
US Vice President JD Vance told reporters that European leaders should take Trump “seriously” since the issue is about defence. “What we’re asking our European friends to do is take the security of that landmass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said. On Wednesday, Vance, accusing Denmark of not having properly secured Greenland, asserted that Trump “is willing to go as far as he has to” to defend US interests in the Arctic. On Fox News, Vance repeated Trump’s claim that Greenland is crucial to both the US and the world’s national security because “the entire missile defence infrastructure is partially dependent on Greenland.”
Yesterday in the US Senate, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) took issue with the “profoundly troubling” rhetoric of some in the Trump administration, observing that the agenda for 2026 is busy enough. “Greenland – or taking Greenland, or buying Greenland – should not be on that list. It should not be an obsession at the highest levels of this administration.”
Danish officials are hopeful about next week’s talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government together with the Greenlandic government,” Denmark’s Minister of Defence, Troels Lund Poulsen, told DR, the Danish broadcaster.
Earlier, Rubio told a select group of US lawmakers that the Republican administration intended to eventually purchase Greenland, as opposed to using military force.
Aaja Chemnitz, one of the two Greenlandic politicians in the Danish parliament, spoke to the Associated Press about how “disrespectful“ many of the remarks being made about the island are. “We have a firm saying in Greenland, ‘Nothing about Greenland, without Greenland.‘” Most Greenlanders, she noted, “wish for more self-determination, including independence“ but also want to “strengthen cooperation with our partners“ in security and business development as long as it is based on “mutual respect and recognition of our right to self-determination.”
Greenland, she pointed out, is “a long-standing ally and partner to the US, and we have a shared interest in stability, security, and responsible cooperation in the Arctic [having] an agreement with
the US that gives them access to have bases in Greenland if needed.”
Last year, Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow US military bases on Danish soil, widening a 2023 military agreement with the Biden administration that gave US troops broad access to Danish air bases. Last year, the Danish government announced a 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”
This article used information from The Associated Press.
