Greenland has emerged as the center of a diplomatic standoff as U.S. President Donald Trump expresses interest in controlling the strategically important Arctic island, prompting strong pushback from residents and Danish officials.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to meet Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the island, which remains a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.
Greenlanders insist the territory is not for sale, with 22-year-old student Tuuta Mikaelsen telling The Associated Press, “I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us,” while Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said, “If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”
Critics in Nuuk question claims of Russian or Chinese threats cited by Trump, describing the rationale as “just fantasy,” and Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, Naaja Nathanielsen, called it “unfathomable” that the U.S. would consider taking over a NATO ally, urging American officials to heed the voices of the island’s residents.