Greenland, Denmark envoys to U.S. meet with White House officials
WASHINGTON — The top U.S. representatives from Denmark and Greenland met with White House officials on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the discussions, to try to better understand U.S. policy on the semi-autonomous island.
A White House official confirmed the meeting with Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Greenland’s representative to the United States, Jacob Isbosethsen, but both sources declined to say who from the Trump administration participated in the discussions.
President Donald Trump has said he needs the Arctic island for national security purposes, with White House officials publicly discussing a range of options for acquiring the Danish territory, ranging from using the U.S. military to purchasing the land.
Asked about Greenland in a recent New York Times interview, Trump said “ownership is very important.”
Ownership is “what I think is psychologically necessary for success,” Trump said. “I think property gives you something that you can’t do, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Property gives you things and elements that you can’t get by just signing a document.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland next week for further discussions.
Vice President JD Vance, who took questions from reporters during Thursday’s White House briefing, reiterated U.S. interest in Greenland.
“We will continue to deliver some of these messages privately, some of these messages publicly, but I guess my advice to European leaders and anyone else would be to take the president of the United States seriously,” Vance said.
“First, Greenland is really important, not only to U.S. missile defense, but to global missile defense. Second, we know that there are hostile adversaries who have shown a lot of interest in this particular territory, this particular part of the world,” he said. “So what we’re asking of our European friends is to take the security of this landmass more seriously, because if they don’t, the United States will have to do something about it.”
Sørensen and Isbosethsen also met with a bipartisan group of US senators on Thursday.
In a social media post after the meeting with lawmakers, Sørensen said NATO member Denmark had recently invested $4 billion in Arctic security, including expanding the permanent presence of its armed forces.
He called Denmark and Greenland “strong and reliable partners” for U.S. security interests.
As for purchasing the island, Isbosethsen was blunt.
“Greenland is not for sale,” he told NBC News after meetings at the Capitol. “I think our Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and our Foreign Minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, have made it very, very clear that our country belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a Trump ally, said Thursday there was no way to acquire Greenland.
“I think it has been made clear by our Danish friends and by our friends in Greenland that this future does not include negotiation,” he said. “There is no desire on their part to negotiate the purchase or change of title to their land, which they have owned for so long. That is their prerogative, and they are right, and they have made that very clear to us.”
