JD Vance to meet officials from Greenland and Denmark as 'annexation' bill filed in Congress

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FROM Denmark and Greenland are due to speak with US Vice President JD Vance in Washington tomorrow, a meeting called in response to threats from President Donald Trump of taking over the island territory.

Denmark’s foreign minister said the reason Copenhagen and Nuuk had requested Wednesday’s meeting was “to move the entire discussion… into a meeting room, where you can look each other in the eye and talk through these issues”.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen today that he and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, had requested a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vance had asked to take part and host it at the White House.

Vance made an uninvited visit to Greenland last year. 

“We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a press conference in Copenhagen alongside Danish leader Mette Frederiksen.

Frederiksen meanwhile said it had not been easy to stand up to what she slammed as “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally”.

Advertisement

‘Annexation’ bill 

Trump has said that Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, would become part of the United States “one way or the other” and today a Republican congressman introduced a bill with the express aim of seizing the world’s largest island. 

Randy Fine of Florida described the Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act as a way for Trump “to find the means necessary to bring Greenland into the Union”. 

“By acquiring Greenland, we would prevent our adversaries from controlling the Arctic Region and secure our northern flank from Russia and China,” Fine said in a post on X. 

“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 sought to cast Greenland as a geostrategic weak point, even though it is home to a US military base and Denmark is a member of Nato, but the island is also rich in valuable minerals.

With reporting from AFP 

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More Support The Journal