Denmark and Greenland to face Vance in high-stakes meeting

NUUK – The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet US Vice-President J.D. Vance at the White House on Jan 14 after weeks of threats by US President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland
, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Mr Trump has said the strategically located and mineral-rich island is vital to US security and the United States must own it to prevent Russia or China occupying it
.

Greenland and Denmark say the island is not for sale, threats of force are reckless and security concerns should be resolved among allies. Prominent EU countries have backed Denmark.

Avoiding ‘Zelensky moment’ at White House

When Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Ms Vivian Motzfeldt, meet Mr Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at around 3.30pm GMT, their aim will be to de-escalate the crisis and find a diplomatic path to satisfy US demands for more control, analysts said.

“The end goal is to find some form of accommodation, or make a deal that would satisfy that need, or at least calm down the rhetoric sufficiently from Donald Trump,” Dr Andreas Osthagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute, told Reuters.

Mr Noa Redington, an analyst and former political adviser to previous Danish premier Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said concerns were high in Denmark and Greenland that Ms Motzfeldt and Mr Rasmussen could be treated in the same way as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, when he suffered a public humiliation in a meeting with Mr Trump – and Mr Vance – at the White House in February 2025.

“This is the most important meeting in modern Greenland’s history,” he told Reuters.

Choosing to stand united with Denmark

Greenlandic leaders appear to be shifting their approach in how they are handling the diplomatic crisis.

Until recently, they were stressing Greenland’s right to self-determination. But on Jan 13, their public statements put more emphasis on Greenland’s unity with Denmark.

“We face a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the US and Denmark here and now, then we choose Denmark
,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said alongside his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen on Jan 13.

He added: “We stand united in the Kingdom of Denmark.”

Ms Motzfeldt had a similar message.

“We choose the Greenland we know today – as part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Ms Motzfeldt said in a statement released by the Danish Ambassador to the US on Jan 13.

‘A big problem for him’

But that message appeared to be falling on deaf ears in Washington.

Mr Trump, when asked by reporters late on Jan 13, dismissed Mr Nielsen’s statement that Greenland preferred to remain part of Denmark.

“That is their problem. I disagree with them. I do not know who he is. Do not know anything about him, but that is going to be a big problem for him,” Mr Trump said.

White House officials have been discussing various plans to bring Greenland under US control, including potential use of the US military and lump-sum payments to Greenlanders to convince them.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said the hardest part in the dispute over Greenland’s future may lie ahead.

“This is not just about Greenland or the Kingdom, it is about the fact that you cannot change borders by force, that you cannot buy another people, and that small countries should not have to fear bigger countries,” Ms Frederiksen said on Jan 13.

Denmark and Greenland had originally sought a meeting with Mr Rubio, hoping to have a discussion among top diplomats on resolving the crisis between the two NATO allies.

But Denmark’s Rasmussen said Mr Vance had also wanted to participate and that the Vice-President would host the meeting himself, at the White House. REUTERS