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

COPENHAGEN: 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.

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.