Denmark sees talks with US as chance for 'dialogue that is needed' over Greenland

Denmark has welcomed a meeting with the US next week to discuss President Donald Trumps renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island of Greenland to come under American control.This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government together with the Greenlandic government, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR on Thursday.

Denmark has welcomed a meeting with the US next week to discuss President Donald Trump's renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island of Greenland to come under American control.

"This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government together with the Greenlandic government," Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR on Thursday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said on Wednesday that a meeting about Greenland would happen next week, without giving details about timing, location or participants. "I'm not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention. I'll be meeting with them next week, we'll have those conversations with them then," Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill. Greenland's government has told Danish public broadcaster DR that Greenland will participate in the meeting between Denmark and the US announced by Rubio.

"Nothing about Greenland without Greenland. Of course, we will be there. We are the ones who requested the meeting," Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt told DR.

The island of Greenland, 80 per cent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people.

Purchase Greenland --------------------------- US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that Denmark "obviously" had not done a proper job in securing Greenland and that Trump "is willing to go as far as he has to" to defend American interests in the Arctic. In an interview with Fox News, Vance repeated Trump's claim that Greenland is crucial to both the US and the world's national security because ''the entire missile defence infrastructure is partially dependent on Greenland." He said the fact that Denmark has been a faithful military ally of the US during World War II and the more recent "war on terrorism" did not necessarily mean they were doing enough to secure Greenland today. "Just because you did something smart 25 years ago doesn't mean you can't do something dumb now," Vance said, adding that Trump ''is saying very clearly, you are not doing a good job with respect to Greenland." Vance's comments came after Rubio told a select group of US lawmakers that it was the Republican administration's intention to eventually purchase Greenland, as opposed to using military force.

Surveillance operations for the US ------------------------------------------ "Greenland belongs to its people,'' Antonio Costa, the President of the European Council, said on Wednesday. "Nothing can be decided about Denmark and about Greenland without Denmark, or without Greenland. They have the full solid support and solidarity of the European Union." The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK joined Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday in defending Greenland's sovereignty in the wake of Trump's comments about Greenland, which is part of the NATO military alliance. After Vance's visit to Greenland last year, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen published a video detailing the 1951 defence agreement between Denmark and the US Since 1945, the American military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers over 17 bases and installations on the island, Rasmussen said, to the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest with some 200 soldiers today. The base supports missile warning, missile defence, and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO.

The 1951 agreement "offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland," Rasmussen said. "If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it." Military defence of Greenland ------------------------------------ Last year, Denmark's parliament approved a bill to allow US military bases on Danish soil. The legislation widens a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where US troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.

Denmark is moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. Last year, the government announced a 14.6 billion-kroner (USD 2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to "improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region." The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

Denmark's Joint Arctic Command, headquartered in Nuuk, is tasked with the "surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defence of Greenland and the Faroe Islands," according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island.

The Sirius Dog Sledge Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is also stationed in Greenland.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)