Top diplomats from Greenland and Denmark met with White House officials at the National Security Council on Thursday amid renewed assertions by President Donald Trump that the United States should acquire Greenland, even as both territories insist the island is not for sale.
Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Greenland’s head of representation, Jacob Isbosethsen, held talks with Trump advisers following public remarks by senior administration officials describing it as U.S. “policy” to acquire the autonomous Danish territory, a position that has angered officials in Nuuk and Copenhagen.
While the diplomats said Washington had previously maintained a business-as-usual relationship and never directly raised either a purchase or military threat, concerns have intensified after Trump appointed a special envoy tasked with making Greenland “a part of the US” and amid comments suggesting force had not been ruled out.
Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, condemned the rhetoric as “entirely unacceptable,” stressing that “a population cannot simply be purchased,” while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet Greenlandic and Danish foreign ministers next week as tensions over the issue continue to rise.