Vance scolds Denmark during Greenland trip

US vice-president JD Vance accused Denmark of leaving Greenland vulnerable to alleged forays in China and Russia, when he asked his people to “conclude an agreement” with the United States.

Speaking during a visit to the Arctic island, vance minimized the recent threats of President Donald Trump to take over the island by force.

Instead, he urged the Greenlanders to break his ties with Denmark, which has owned the island for over 300 years, saying that the nation had not invested enough to protect the semi-autonomous territory.

A overwhelming majority Greenlanders oppose the idea of ​​annexation, a survey indicated in January. The Prime Minister of Greenland said that the American visit showed a “disrespect”.

And the King of Denmark, Frederik, also rejected the American plan.

“We live in a modified reality,” said the monarch on social networks on Friday. “There is no doubt that my love for Greenland and my connectivity to the inhabitants of Greenland are intact.”

Friday’s visit was initially presented as a “cultural” tour of the wife of Vance, USHA, where she was looking at a dog sliding race, but she made a ramp in the process of ramp in several days of adjustments when the visit attracted control and security problems, with multiple demonstrations planned.

Instead, Vance and the second lady were in Greenland for just a few hours, just visiting the Pitoffik space base, an anti -missile defense installation in the north far from the island, about 930m (1,500 km) from the capital, Nuuk.

He took the opportunity to target Denmark, alleging that she had to “protect the inhabitants of Greenland from many very aggressive incursions of Russia, China and other nations”, without providing more details.

He specifically called on countries to be interested in roads and minerals in the region, because the island of 57,000 people held reserves of minerals and massive unusual oil.

In his remarks, Vance sought to reassure the inhabitants of Greenland that the United States would not use the military force to take the island of Denmark. Instead, he urged the Greenlanders to adopt a “self -determination” and to separate links with Denmark, which has controlled the region since 1721.

“We believe that we are able to conclude an agreement, of Donald Trump style, to ensure the security of this territory,” said Vance.

“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,” he said, adding “their security is really our security”.

The vice-president said that the United States did not have the immediate intention of expanding the American military presence on the ground, but would invest more resources, including ships and military glaces.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple,” said Vance.

“You have not done a good job by the inhabitants of Greenland. You have under-infringement of the inhabitants of Greenland and you have under-invest in the safety of this incredible and beautiful land mass.”

With his wife, Vance was joined on a trip by the US National Security Councilor Mike Waltz and the energy secretary Chris Wright.

The outside temperature in Pituffik was -3F (-19 C).

Back in the White House, President Trump insisted that the United States needed Greenland to guarantee “peace of the whole world” and that his sailors had “Chinese and Russian ships everywhere”.

“We need Greenland, very important for international security,” he said.

“We must have Greenland. This is not a question:” Do you think we can do without it? “We can’t.”

He said that Denmark and the European Union have understood the situation “and if they do not, we will have to explain to them.”

In a statement to the BBC, Danish Prime Minister Put Frederiksen challenged Vance’s comments.

“For many years, we have stood side by side with the Americans in very difficult situations,” she said. “Therefore, this is not a specific way for the vice-president to refer to Denmark.”

She said Denmark had considerably increased defense spending, but would increase her investment more with more surveillance, new arctic ships, long -range drones and satellite capacities.

“We are ready – day and night – cooperate with the Americans,” she said. “Cooperation that must be based on the international game rules required.”

The new Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said before Vance’s visit, he showed “a lack of respect for the Greenland people”.

In the capital of Greenland in Nuuk, some people to whom the BBC spoke was not won over by the American openings.

In a cultural center of the city, the artist Karline Poulsen said: “There are many ways to say things. But I think that the way President Trump says it’s not the way.”

A woman who gave her name only as Nina said: “I am worried [about the visit]. It’s a bit strange, I don’t like it. “”

His daughter, Anita, said that the visit had caused “a lot of uncertainty and that many people were worried”.

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to call a referendum on independence, although in recent years, some political parties have started to push more for that.

Greenland governs its own internal affairs, but decisions on foreign and defense policy are taken in Copenhagen. Five of the six main parties that participated in the elections for this month are the favor of Denmark’s independence, but they do not agree on the pace with which to reach it.

Trump first launched the idea of ​​buying Greenland during his first mandate – and his desire to own the island only developed time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he had considered Trump’s plans for “serious” Greenland.

He expressed his concern that “NATO countries, in general, are increasingly designating the extreme north as a springboard for possible conflicts”.

Qupanuk Olsen, a politician from Greenland in the Naleraq pro-independence party, told the BBC that the country took the American interest in the very serious island.

“We are afraid of being colonized again. We have been a colony for 300 years under Denmark, it’s always like that,” explains Olsen. “Now another colonizer is interested in us.”

Troy Bouffard, a professor of the University of Alaska, focused on the security of the Arctic, told the BBC that Trump was based on his commercial sense to accomplish what he wanted in the region, rather than on geopolitics or diplomacy.

“If you only think of this problem in terms of diplomacy, you will miss the other options that the United States may have to conclude this agreement to put pressure on the main players to negotiate or compromise,” he said.

Bouffard said the end of the United States was to have a “much more robust relationship” with Greenland.

One of the potential scenarios could be to dismiss Denmark from the image, and that the United States establishes a relationship that replaces Denmark, he notes.

Mr. Bouffard suggested that it is possible that the United States will change the nature of the relationship and assume certain responsibilities which normally belong to Denmark.

Ana Faguy has helped make reports for this story.