US vice-president JD Vance is to visit Greenland on Friday at a time when President Donald Trump is renewing his insistence that Washington should take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
In a scaled-back version of a trip plan that had angered authorities in both Greenland and Denmark, Mr Vance was expected to fly to the US military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island.
Broadcaster TV2 said the delegation was scheduled to land at about 12.30pm local time (3.30pm Irish time). Pituffik is located along the shortest route from Europe to North America and is vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.
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.
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The initial plan had been for Mr Vance’s wife, Usha, to visit a popular dog-sled race on the island together with national security adviser Mike Waltz, even though they were not invited by authorities in either Greenland or Denmark.
Mr Waltz, who is facing pressure over Trump administration officials’ discussion of sensitive Houthi attack plans on the Signal messaging app, will still be on the Greenland trip, according to a White House source.
US energy secretary Chris Wright will also join, TV2 reported, citing anonymous sources.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen called the initial plans for the US visit “unacceptable”. Foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen later welcomed news of the revised visit as a positive, de-escalating step.
Greenland’s acting prime minister Mute Egede called the visit a provocation on Monday, as the country has not yet formed a new government after a March 11th election. He spoke before the US changed the plans for the visit.
Still, some residents in Greenland’s capital Nuuk remained angry at the Trump administration ahead of Mr Vance’s visit. “I am a human. Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale,” said Tungutaq Larsen, a film-make.
According to public broadcaster KNR, a pro-business party that placed first in the election will present plans for a coalition on Friday.
“The coalition agreement could not have come at a better time as it will signal to the Vances the unity forged in defiance of Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and their ill-timed visit,” Dwayne Ryan Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research & Policy Initiative think tank said in a written comment.
Mr Trump reiterated his desire to take over Greenland on 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 Greenland, including Denmark,” he said.
Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen condemned what he called Mr Trump’s escalated rhetoric.
On Thursday Russian president Vladimir Putin said geopolitical rivalries in the Arctic were intensifying and that Moscow was boosting its military capabilities in the region.
He said Mr Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland were “serious” but had nothing to do with Russia.
The question now is how far Mr 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 to try to get full control over Greenland,” he said.
“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 to Greenland, and economic instruments,” he added.
“And the real winner in this unnecessary drama is Russia, who gets exactly what they want: discord in the transatlantic relationship.”
By revising the trip, the Trump administration is seeking to refocus the discussion on the topics it is interested in: the US 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,” said Ms Sendak.
“It is positive, given the very public back and forth between the Danish and Greenland governments and the Trump administration about the intent of the initial visit.” − Reuters
