US vice-president JD Vance criticized Denmark during a visit to Greenland on Friday, saying that he had not done a good job to keep the Danish territory semi-autonomous and its inhabitants sheltered from the incursions of China and Russia, while promising respect for the sovereignty of Greenland and its people “to associate” in the United States.
Vance said the United States had no immediate plans to extend its military presence on the ground in Greenland, but will invest in resources, including additional naval ships.
“Denmark has not followed the pace and devoted the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops and in my opinion, to protect the inhabitants of Greenland from many very aggressive incursions of Russia, China and other nations,” said Vance.
He did not give any details on the alleged incursions.
The American vice-president said that Russia, China and other nations are taking “extraordinary interest” for arctic passages, naval roads and minerals in the region, and that the United States will invest more resources, including naval vessels and military ice breakers who will have greater presence in the country.
With US President Donald Trump threatening to take control of Greenland, the country’s Prime Minister described as an American provocation and very aggressive delegation. The Americans on a trip include the national security advisor Mike Waltz and Usha Vance, the wife of the vice-president.
The new Prime Minister of Greenland said that the visit to the United States had reported a “disrespect” and called for unity in the face of “outside pressure”.
The King of Denmark published a declaration of support on social networks. “We live in a modified reality. It should not be doubt that my love for Greenland and my connectivity to the inhabitants of Greenland are intact,” said King Frederik.
Vance presented remarks during his visit to the American military base in Pituffik in the north of the Arctic Island, which intervened only a few hours after a new broad government coalition which aims to maintain links with Denmark for the moment, was presented in the capital, Nuuk.
Vance welcomed members of the American armed forces shortly after his arrival, thanking them for their service on the distant base located 1,200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.
Vance also promised that the people of Greenland will have “self-determination” and the United States will respect their sovereignty.
“We hope they choose to join in the United States, because we are the only nation on Earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security, because their security is really our security,” said Vance.
During his visit to Greenland, Vance also briefly talked about Canada – but as regards the prices that the United States has threatened, and not the distinct threat of annexation, US President Donald Trump, raised several times against the neighbor of his country.
“There is no way that Canada will be able to win a trade war with the United States,” said Vance, by answering a question of a journalist on the impact that Americans can feel the taxation of prices on the goods of the American allies.
US vice-president JD Vance told journalists on Friday that he thought that US President Donald Trump was on the right track with the use of prices and that he thinks: “There is no way Canada could win a trade war with the United States”.
‘We need Greenland’: Trump
While Vance’s visit was underway, Trump told the White House journalists that the United States needed Greenland to ensure “peace of the whole world”.
“We need Greenland, very important for international security. We must have Greenland. This is not a question:” Do you think we can do without it? “We can’t,” said Trump.
Trump said that Greenland navigable waterways have “Chinese and Russian ships everywhere” and that the United States will not count on Denmark or for someone else to manage the situation.
Denmark and the European Union understand why Greenland is important for world peace “and if they do not, we will have to explain to them,” added Trump.
The American delegation also includes the wife of Vance, USHA, the national security advisor Mike Waltz and the energy secretary Chris Wright.
The initial trip of the trip was that Vance’s wife visited a sled dog race on the island with Waltz, even if they were not invited by the authorities in Greenland or Denmark.
The public demonstrations and the indignation of the authorities of Greenland and Denmark prompted the American delegation to go to the military base and not to meet the public.
Under a 1951 agreement, the United States has the right to visit its base when it wishes, as long as it informs Greenland and Copenhagen. Pituffik is located along the shortest road from Europe to North America and is vital for the American ballistic missile alert system.
The island, whose capital is closer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, has minerals, oil and the richness of natural gas, but the development has been slow and the mining sector has experienced very limited American investments. The mining companies operating in Greenland are mainly Australian, Canadian or British.
An official of the White House said that Greenland had a sufficient supply of minerals of rare earths that would feed the next generation of the American economy.
New PM calls unity
The new Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, urged political unity on Friday.
“At a time when we, as a people, are under pressure, we must stick together,” Nielsen said at a press conference.
His pro-business party, the Democrats, which promotes progressive independence from Denmark, has become the largest party in a March 11 election.
The Danish Prime Minister puts Frederiksen, who had called the initial plans for the visit of the United States “unacceptable”, congratulated Greenland for his new government in an article on Instagram: “I can’t wait to close cooperation in unnecessarily designed by conflict”.
The question is now to know how far Trump is willing to push his idea to resume the island, said Andreas Oesthague, principal researcher on Arctic policy and security in the Nansen Fridtjof Institute based in Oslo.
“It is still unlikely that the United States will use military means,” he told Reuters.
“But it is unfortunately likely that President Trump and Vice-President Vance will continue to use other means of pressure, such as ambiguous declarations, semi-official visits to Greenland and economic instruments,” he said.
Some residents of Greenland also express concerns about Trump’s will to make Trump to make his threats a reality.
“It is Trump,” said Jens Ele Nielsen, the father of the new Prime Minister when Speak with the news of the British channel 4. “You don’t know what he’s going to do tomorrow, maybe.”
‘We are not for sale’
By revising the trip, the Trump administration seeks to refocus the discussion on the subjects that interest it: the American presence on Greenland, the available military capacities and the broader Arctic, according to Catherine Sendak, head of the Defense and Transatlantic Security Program for the analysis of European policies of the Center for European, in Washington.
“A change of course was necessary,” Sendak told Reuters.
However, some Nuuk residents have been angry with the Trump administration before Vance’s visit.
“I am a humans. Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale,” a filmmaker told Reuters Tunguaq.
Surveys have shown that almost all Greenlanders are opposed to being part of the United States. Anti-American demonstrators, some wearing caps “Make America Go Away” and holding banners “Yankees are home”, organized some of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in Greenland.
