The government of Greenland did not extend any invitations, “neither private nor official”. But US vice-president JD Vance is coming anyway, due to visit the island on Friday with his wife Usha and several high-level US officials.
Initially flagged by the White House as a “private visit” or tourist trip, the party will visit the US Pituffik space base, though a planned trip by Usha Vance to a local event has been cancelled, reducing some of the controversy around the visit.
It is, nonetheless, an attempt to project power. And the message is clear. US president Donald Trump says he intends to annex Greenland, with its population of 57,000. In his own latest words: “We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark.” He appears less inclined to buy it than initially suggested, refusing to rule out military force.
Vance claimed on X, a social media platform, that he would visit the Pituffik base to “check out the security of Greenland … A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and waterways to threaten the US, to threaten Canada, and of course to threaten the people of Greenland”. In reality, no one has threatened Greenland except Trump.
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Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has spoken of “unacceptable pressure” and has said “it is a pressure we will stand up to”. And Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen called Trump’s statements an escalation and “in every way far-fetched”. Denmark’s EU and Nato allies need to support Copenhagen here and defend the sovereignty of a member state.
The autonomous island is trying to form a new coalition government after elections that resulted in overwhelming backing for parties that reject US annexation. That prospect is opposed by 85 per cent of the population, polls show.
Although open to discussions with the US on security cooperation and rare earth mining contracts and, though it is itching to reduce the Danish colonial link, absorption by the US is definitely not on.
