Nuuk, Greenland: On Friday, US Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to land in Greenland. This came as President Donald Trump is once more insisting that Washington should take control of the Danish territory, which is semi-autonomous.
The visit to the US military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island comes just hours after a new broad government coalition, which aims to keep ties with Denmark for now, was presented in the capital Nuuk.
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The new prime minister said the US visit signalled a “lack of respect” and called for unity in the face of “pressure from outside”.
The US delegation, which will also include Vance’s wife Usha, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was scheduled to land at around 1530 GMT.
The initial plan for the trip had been for Vance’s wife to visit a dog-sled race on the island together with Waltz, even though they were not invited by authorities in either Greenland or Denmark.
Public protests and outrage from authorities in both Greenland and Denmark prompted the US delegation to only fly to the military base and not meet the public.
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Under the terms of a 1951 agreement, the US is entitled to visit its base whenever it wants, as long as it notifies Greenland and Copenhagen.
Pituffik is located along the shortest route from Europe to North America and is vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.
Trump reiterated his desire to take over it as recently as Wednesday, saying the US needs the strategically located island for national and international security.
“So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have it, including Denmark,” he said.
The island, whose capital Nuuk is closer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and natural gas wealth, but
development has been slow and the mining sector has seen very limited U.S. investment.
Mining companies operating in the country are mostly Australian, Canadian or British.
A White House official has said Greenland has an ample supply of rare earth minerals that would power the next generation of the U.S. economy.
New government in Greenland
Greenland’s new Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Friday urged political unity. At a press conference, Nielsen stated, “At a time when we as a people are under pressure, we must stand together.”
His pro-business party, the Democrats, which favours a gradual independence from Denmark, emerged as the biggest party in a March 11 election.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who had called the initial plans for the US visit “unacceptable”, congratulated Greenland on its new government in a post on Instagram: “I look forward to close cooperation in an unnecessarily conflict-ridden time.”
The question now is how far Trump is willing to push his idea of taking over the island, said Andreas Oesthagen, a senior researcher on Arctic politics and security at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
“It is still unlikely that the United States will use military means,” he told Reuters. He continued, “But it is unfortunately likely that President Trump and Vice President Vance will continue to use other means of pressure, such as ambiguous statements, semi-official visits, and economic instruments.”
Greenland Not for sale
By revising the trip, the Trump administration is seeking to refocus the discussion on the topics it is interested in: the U.S. presence on Greenland, military capabilities available, and the wider security of the Arctic, said Catherine Sendak, head of the Transatlantic Defense and Security programme at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank.
“A change of course was needed,” Sendak told Reuters. However, prior to Vance’s visit, some Nuuk residents maintained their resentment toward the Trump administration.
“I am a human. Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale,” Tungutaq Larsen, a film-maker, told Reuters.
According to polls, nearly all Greenlanders oppose joining the United States. Some of the largest anti-American demonstrations ever held in the country have been staged by protesters who are holding
“Yankees Go Home” banners and wearing caps that say “Make America Go Away.”
On Thursday, residents in Nuuk planted Greenlandic flags in the snow and a cardboard sign in English that said “Our Land. Our Next Steps.