Denmark is to expand its permanent military presence in Greenland with immediate effect after “frank but constructive” White House talks over the future of the Arctic island ended after just 50 minutes.
After two weeks of transatlantic megaphone diplomacy, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told US counterpart Marco Rubio and US vice-president JD Vance that Copenhagen would view a US attack on Greenland as a threat to Danish territory, covered by Nato’s mutual defence pact.
In a post-meeting press conference, Mr Rasmussen announced a new “high-level” working group to find a “common way forward” that addressed US security concerns while respecting the “red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark”.
“This is the work we will start, but whether it is doable? I don’t know,” he added, given what he called “fundamental” differences with the US.
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Denmark’s chief diplomat said repeatedly in a news conference that Greenland faced no immediate threat from China or Russia, contradicting a core argument made by the Trump administration to justify a US takeover.
Greenland is a largely self-governing territory inside the three-state Kingdom of Denmark, though security and defence remain competences of the government in Copenhagen.
Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, who also attended the meeting, welcomed the new co-operation, calling the US as a security ally.
“That doesn’t mean we want to be owned by the United States,” she added.
US president Donald Trump has vowed to take control of the Arctic island “the easy way or the hard way”.
Denmark’s government has warned that such a push would collapse Nato.
Mr Trump did not attend the meeting but, after it concluded, posted on social media: “Nato: Tell Denmark to get them out of here, NOW! Two dog sleds won’t do it! Only the USA can!!!”
Denmark dismisses such claims, pointing to a €5.6 billion Arctic defence package last year.
In advance of Wednesday’s meeting, the Danish defence ministry announced even deeper co-operation in the region with its European Nato allies.
“From today, there will be an expanded military presence in and around Greenland”, the statement said, mentioning “aircraft, vessels and soldiers” from Denmark as well as France, Germany, Sweden and Norway.
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that army officers from Sweden and other European Nato countries had already arrived in Greenland at Denmark’s request as part of the long-planned “Operation Arctic Endurance”.
Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen predicted that a US attack on Greenland was “unlikely”.
Meanwhile in the US senate, Republican Mitch McConnell said Denmark and Greenland were “ready and willing” to meet White House security demands in the region.
“The proposition at hand today,” he said, “is pretty straightforward: incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change across the Arctic”.
The US president first raised the idea of a US takeover of Greenland in 2019, during his first term, but has ramped up his rhetoric significantly since returning to the White House last year, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”.
Mr Trump has jolted the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize the strategically located, mineral-rich island, which is covered by many of the protections offered by the two organisations because Denmark belongs to both of them.
Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale, that the US is exercising “unacceptable pressure” on a long-standing ally and that a 1951 bilateral agreement already allows the US to massively expand its military presence on the island.
Several EU leaders have backed Denmark, pledging their support for its territorial integrity and right to self-determination. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Wednesday the island “belongs to its people”.
“For me it’s important that the Greenlanders know and they know this by the deeds, not only by the words, that we respect the wishes of the Greenlanders and their interests and that they can count on us,” she said in Brussels.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron also said that if “the sovereignty of an EU country and ally were to be affected, the knock-on effects would be unprecedented”. France would “act in full solidarity with Denmark and its sovereignty”, he added.
The European Parliament is also considering putting on hold the EU’s implementation of the trade deal struck with the US in protest over Mr Trump’s threats.
The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU’s import duties on US goods. – Additional reporting by Reuters
