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JD Vance told troops in Greenland that the US has to gain control of the Arctic island to stop the threat of China and Russia as he doubled down on criticising Denmark, which he said “have not done a good job”.
Under increasingly strained relations between the White House and Greenland and Denmark, the US vice-president said during a visit to Pituffik space base on Friday: “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass.”
Speaking alongside US troops, as well as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who is at the centre of the Signal message group security breach, Waltz’s wife, Julia Nesheiwat, the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, and the senator for Utah, Mike Lee, he said the Trump administration’s “argument” was not with the people of Greenland. It was, he said, “with the leadership if Denmark”, which he accused of having underinvested in Greenland and its security.
“That simply must change,” he added. “It is the policy of the United States that that will change.”
Greenland, he said, would better off “coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella”. He claimed the territory was not being kept safe by Denmark “from a lot of very agressive incursions from Russia, from China and other nations.”
Shortly after he flew into the ice-locked US military base of Pituffik in north-west Greenland with his wife, Usha, and other senior US officials on Friday, the vice-president told US troops he was “really interested in Arctic security”.
“As you all know, it’s a big issue and it’s only going to get bigger over the coming decades,” he said. Vance also said it was “cold as shit here” as he arrived to temperatures of -19C.
In the White House, Trump reiterated his previous claims that the US needs Greenland for “world peace”.
“I think Greenland understands that the United States should own it,” he said in a press conference on Friday. “And if Denmark and the EU don’t understand it, we have to explain it to them. We need Greenland. Very importantly, for international security, we have to have Greenland.”
There are, he claimed, “Chinese and Russian ships all over the place”.
Hours before Vance’s arrival, in Nuuk political leaders agreed to form a broad four-party coalition government, in a show of national unity. In a rebuke to the Trump administration and its public campaign to gain control of Greenland, four of the territory’s five parties signed the coalition agreement on Friday, which states on page one: “Greenland belongs to us.”
There has been a week of heightened tension, amid already strained relations between the US, Greenland and Denmark as a result of Trump’s repeated threats to acquire Greenland. Writing on social media before his plane landed, JD Vance said: “We’re on our way and looking forward to it!”
Greenland, a former Danish colony, is a semi-autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark, its foreign and security policies run by Copenhagen.
Earlier in the week, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, accused the US of putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland and Denmark to give up the territory, adding: “It is pressure that we will resist.”
On Thursday Trump renewed his vow to take control of the island: “We need Greenland for national security and international security. So we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security.”
The US delegation took off from Maryland and were due to fly directly to the ice-locked American military base, built after a 1951 defence agreement between Denmark and the US – with no further stops on the island now planned by the vice-president or his wife.
The delegation’s plans were hastily rescheduled just days before to cut out visits to the capital, Nuuk, and a dog sled race in Sisimiut after widespread outrage in Nuuk and Copenhagen over the unsolicited trip. Originally the second lady was scheduled to travel without the vice-president.
Under the changed plans, understood to include a “traditional” troop visit, Vance made an address from the base at 5.45pm GMT.
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The Greenlandic government’s coalition agreement was signed on Friday after all but one of the parties reached a deal with the ruling party, the Democrats, which received the most votes in the 11 March election, on Thursday. The most US-friendly party, Naleraq, which came second in the election, left the talks on Monday, and will not be part of the coalition.
The first page of the coalition agreement states that “no one” should have any doubt that “Greenland belongs to us.
“We decide our own future. We must choose our partners ourselves. And we are the ones who dictate the pace in this regard,” it reads.
“We must show the world that we are a people and a country that stands together in prosperity and adversity. Our unity as a people must always outweigh political disagreements in individual areas.”
In response to a reporter’s question about Vance, the new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the US had not shown respect for Greenland. “JD Vance is landing at a facility that is theirs [the US base]. This whole situation of coming to visit when there is no government in place, we insist, is not showing respect for an ally. It’s a shame, but now we have a government that needs to get its act together,” he said.
Frederiksen congratulated Greenland’s new prime minister, saying: “I wish Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the rest of the Greenland government all the best for your work and for Greenland.
“And I look forward to close cooperation in an unnecessarily conflict-filled time. Strong with a broad government and unity between different political parties. You show the strength of democracy.”
Denmark’s King Frederik said: “There should be no doubt about my love for Greenland, and my connection to the Greenlandic people is intact.”
The new coalition has also stated that it will work to significantly increase Greenland’s self-determination. “A clear roadmap must be drawn up as soon as possible for which areas it is realistic to take back, after which the process must be initiated,” it stated.
The former Greenlandic prime minister, Múte B Egede, leader of Inuit Ataqatigiit, who will now be minister for finance and taxes, said that it is only together that Greenland can “meet the great pressure from outside”.
The leader of Siumut, Vivian Motzfeldt, said: “We have listened to the Greenlandic population. We have listened to the need for us to be united as the Greenlandic population. We must be able to look forward and not get stuck in the past.”
She added: “It is important that we gather our strengths, our identity and our culture.”
