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Greenland’s prime minister has said “we choose Denmark” before high-stakes talks at the White House about Donald Trump’s intention to take control of the Arctic territory.
Amid rising tensions over the US president’s push, Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday that the island would not be owned or governed by Washington.
“We are now facing a geopolitical crisis. If we have to choose between the US and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark, Nato and the EU,” Nielsen said, adding that the island’s “goal and desire is peaceful dialogue, with a focus on cooperation”.
Trump’s pursuit of the island was also a matter of “international law and our right to our own country”, he said. “Everyone must grasp one thing. Greenland will not be owned by the US. Greenland will not be governed by the US.”
Trump first raised the idea of a US takeover of Greenland, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, in 2019, during his first term. But he has ramped up his rhetoric significantly this month, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, is to host a crunch meeting with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Wednesday.
The US president has shocked the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is covered by many of the protections offered by the two organisations because Denmark belongs to both.
Frederiksen said it had not been easy for Denmark to “stand up to completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally”. She said something fundamental was at stake, and there was “much evidence the most challenging part lies ahead”.
The fact was that “borders cannot be changed by force, and that small countries should not fear large countries”, she said. “That is why we are saying no. We are not looking for any conflict. But our message is clear. Greenland is not for sale.”
Løkke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen on Tuesday: “Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion … into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”
Frederiksen has previously said a US invasion would lead to the end of Nato and multiple European leaders have pledged their support for Greenland’s territorial integrity and right to self-determination.
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Tuesday that any US move to take control of Greenland “would be a real unprecedented situation in the history of Nato, and in the history of any defense alliance in the world”.
The Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said after a meeting of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday that he and Motzfeldt would also meet the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in Brussels next Monday.
Poulsen said Denmark planned a larger military presence alongside other Nato countries in Greenland this year, adding that Copenhagen sought “greater attention from Nato in relation to issues regarding Nato’s presence in and around the Arctic”.
Trump argues the US needs to control Greenland to increase Arctic security in the face of an alleged threat from China and Russia. Rutte said on Tuesday all Nato members agreed that “when it comes to the protection of the Arctic, we have to work together”.
The Nato chief declined repeatedly to comment on US demands, saying it was “not up to me to comment on discussions between allies. He said the alliance was “working on the next steps” and was in “complete agreement on the urgency of the situation”.
Alliance members including France and Germany have floated suggestions including bolstering Nato’s presence in the region or stationing troops on Greenland itself. But diplomats say talks are at a very early stage and there are no concrete plans.
Denmark will also host a meeting of the foreign, security and defence policy contact committee of the Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese governments on Wednesday. Officials said this would be an “opportunity to discuss the political and economic situation”.
In Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Pele Broberg, the leader of the opposition party Naleraq, told the Guardian the preferable outcome of the Washington talks was to reach a deal with the US. “They want to do a deal the easy way or the hard way: who wants the hard way?” he asked.
He said a deal would be “great, but we haven’t heard about it”. He also questioned Løkke Rasmussen’s attendance, saying the talks had “nothing to do with Danish foreign politics, and everything to do with the Greenlandic people’s future”.
Greenland has been moving toward independence since 1979, when it won self-rule from Denmark. The goal is shared by all political parties elected to the island’s parliament, although there are differences over the best timescale.
Broberg accused Copenhagen of using “Nato, and the Danish ownership of Greenland” to have a say in Greenland’s future. “It shows that they are still not ready to actually let us go,” he said.
Greenland’s government said on Monday it could not “under any circumstances accept” a US takeover and would intensify its efforts to “ensure that the defence of Greenland is carried out within the framework of Nato”.
It said that it believed Greenland would remain a member of the western defence alliance “for ever” and that “all Nato member states, including the US, have a common interest” in the defence of the vast Arctic island.
