‘Fundamental disagreement’ remains with Trump over Greenland after high-level talks

Danish, Greenlandic foreign ministers reject idea of U.S. control, stress unity

A top Danish official said Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains with U.S. President Donald Trump after highly anticipated talks in Washington with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told reporters outside the Danish Embassy in Washington after the meeting concluded.

“It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”

The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences, as Trump continues to call for a U.S. takeover of the semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

“The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Rasmussen said, joined by Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt.

Trump is trying to make the case that NATO should help the U.S. acquire the world’s largest island and says anything less than it being under American control is unacceptable.

Denmark has announced plans to boost the country’s military presence in the Arctic and North Atlantic, as Trump tried to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have designs on Greenland.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the roughly hour-long meeting.

A few hours before the officials sat down, Trump reiterated on his social media site that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of national security.”

Trump again cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason for the U.S. to take control.

“NATO should be leading the way for us to get it,” he wrote, adding that otherwise Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”

“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”

Both Rasmussen and Motzfeldt offered measured hope that the talks were beginning a conversation that would lead to Trump dropping his demand of acquiring the territory and would create a path for tighter co-operation with the U.S.

“We have shown where our limits are, and from there, I think that it will be very good to look forward,” Motzfeldt said.

In Copenhagen, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced an increase in Denmark’s “military presence and exercise activity” in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, “in close co-operation with our allies.”

Poulsen said at a news conference the stepped-up military presence was necessary in a security environment in which “no one can predict what will happen tomorrow.”

“This means that from today and in the coming time, there will be an increased military presence in and around Greenland of aircraft, ships and soldiers, including from other NATO allies,” Poulsen said.

Those allies were arriving in Greenland along with Danish personnel, he said. Poulsen declined to name the other countries contributing to increased Arctic presence, saying that it is up to the allies to announce their own participation.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday that, “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO.”

Asked later Tuesday about Nielsen’s comments, Trump replied: “I disagree with him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know anything about him. But that’s going to be a big problem for him.”

Allies alarmed by U.S. statements

The second Trump administration’s aggressive statements have caused confusion and consternation, as a 1951 agreement between the U.S. and Denmark gives Washington the right to move around freely and construct military bases in Greenland, as long as Denmark and Greenland are notified.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added fuel to the fire last week, stating “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal” in response to questions about Greenland.

Leavitt later pointed out that an aggressive military operation in Venezuela followed what she characterized as a failure of diplomacy, even as Washington has long considered that South American country an adversary, while Denmark and the U.S. are part of the NATO alliance.

Ahead of the meeting, France’s foreign minister denounced what he described as U.S. “blackmail” over Greenland in the latest sign of irritation among U.S. allies.

In comments to RTL radio, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Wednesday said France plans to open a consulate in Greenland on Feb. 6, a decision he said had been taken after President Emmanuel Macron visited the outpost last summer.

“Attacking another NATO member would make no sense; it would even be contrary to the interests of the United States. And I’m hearing more and more voices in the United States saying this,” Barrot said. “So this blackmail must obviously stop.”

Canada has previously announced its own plans to open a Greenland consulate. Last week, Denmark’s major allies joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement declaring that Greenland belongs to its people and that “it is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

‘Security is just a cover’

Greenland is strategically important because as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals, which are needed for computers and phones.

Both experts and Greenlanders question its perceived importance in terms of security.

Lars Vintner, a heating engineer, told The Associated Press he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.

“Security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.

His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.”

Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student in Nuuk, said that Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark, which provides free health care, education and payments during study.