Denmark, Greenland bring united front to White House as Trump says NATO needs U.S. to control island
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U.S. officials led by Vice-President JD Vance will meet Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous territory of the United States’ NATO ally Denmark.
Greenland is at the centre of a geopolitical storm as U.S. President Donald Trump is insisting he wants to own the island — and the residents of its capital Nuuk say it is not for sale. Trump said he wants to control Greenland at any cost, and the White House has not ruled out taking the island by force, a crisis Denmark’s prime minister has warned could potentially trigger the end of NATO.
Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, meeting with Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will aim to de-escalate the crisis and find a diplomatic path to satisfy U.S. demands for more control, analysts said.
But Trump in an early morning social media post on Wednesday wasn’t backing off.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES. Anything less than that is unacceptable,” he posted.
Trump again cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason for the U.S. to take control.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, in April 2025. Both are expected to attend Wednesday’s meeting at the White House. (Jacquelyn Martin/Reuters)
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Tuesday that, “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.”
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.”
LISTEN | Casey Michel, Foreign Policy contributor, on the perils of annexation:
Front Burner28:25What if Greenland’s next?
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.
WATCH | Danish MP Rasmus Jarlov in conversation with CBC:
U.S. has nothing to gain acquiring Greenland as it already has access: Danish MP
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the future of Greenland. Danish Parliament member Rasmus Jarlov says he hopes to hear more on what the U.S. president wants.
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 that 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.”
Greenland natives, some U.S. lawmakers also concerned
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.
WATCH | Danish politician, ex-Trump White House official on Greenland:
Denmark won’t negotiate with U.S. on Greenland ‘looking down the barrel of a gun’: official
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Anders Vistisen, a Danish member of the European Parliament. They discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements on the U.S. need to own Greenland for national security and what it means for the territory’s sovereignty. Plus, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker joins to discuss the tension growing between allies and what military action in Greenland would mean for NATO’s future.
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.”
A bird stands on a boat at the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday. Last week, Denmark’s major allies joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement declaring that Greenland belongs to its people. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told the AP in Nuuk that Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark, which provides free health care, education and payments during study.
“I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us,” she said.
Following the White House meeting, Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, along with Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., are due to meet with senators from the Arctic Caucus in the U.S. Congress. Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, is to host the gathering.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican have introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of funds from the U.S. Defence or State departments to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.
A bipartisan delegation of lawmakers is also heading to Copenhagen at the end of the week to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials.
