COPENHAGEN, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland will meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, the Danish foreign minister said, amid President Donald Trump’s push to take control of the Arctic island.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt had requested a meeting with Rubio after Trump recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark.
MEETING AT THE WHITE HOUSE
“U.S. Vice President JD Vance also wanted to participate in the meeting, and he will host the meeting, which will therefore be held at the White House,” Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
“Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion… into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things,” he added.
Trump first floated the idea of a U.S. takeover of Greenland in 2019 during his first term in office, although he faces opposition in Washington, including from within his own party.
While Denmark has ruled Greenland for centuries, the territory has gradually been moving towards independence since 1979, a goal shared by all political parties elected to the island’s parliament.
DENMARK SEEKS NATO MEETING ON ARCTIC
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said he would participate in a meeting with the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Monday next week to discuss Arctic security, along with Greenland’s Motzfeldt.
Denmark planned a larger military presence in Greenland, with other NATO countries participating in exercises and training in 2026, the defense minister said.
“It has been a Danish priority over the past several years to have a discussion within NATO, but not least to also get greater attention from NATO in relation to issues regarding NATO’s presence in and around the Arctic,” Poulsen said.
(Reporting by Soren Jeppesen and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alex Richardson)
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