Denmark, Greenland envoys met with White House officials over Trump's
call for a 'takeover'
[January 09, 2026]
By AAMER MADHANI and CLAUDIA CIOBANU
WASHINGTON (AP) — Denmark and Greenland’s envoys to Washington have
begun a vigorous effort to urge U.S. lawmakers as well as key Trump
administration officials to step back from President Donald Trump's call
for a takeover of the strategic Arctic island.
Denmark's ambassador, Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Jacob Isbosethsen,
Greenland’s chief representative to Washington, met on Thursday with
White House National Security Council officials to discuss a renewed
push by Trump to acquire Greenland, perhaps by military force, according
to Danish government officials who were not authorized to comment
publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the
meeting.
The envoys have also held a series of meetings this week with American
lawmakers as they look to enlist help in persuading Trump to back off
his threat.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet next week with Danish
officials.
Trump, in a New York Times interview published Thursday, said he has to
possess the entirety of Greenland instead of just exercising a
long-standing treaty that gives the United States wide latitude to use
Greenland for military posts.
“I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do with, you’re
talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and
elements that you can’t get from just signing a document,” Trump told
the newspaper.
The U.S. is party to a 1951 treaty that gives it broad rights to set up
military bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.
Meanwhile, Trump's vice president, JD Vance, told reporters that
European leaders should “take the president of the United States
seriously” as he framed the issue as one of defense.
“What we’re asking our European friends to do is take the security of
that landmass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States
is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said.
But the administration is starting to hear pushback from lawmakers,
including some Republicans, about Trump's designs on the territory.
In a floor speech Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, warned that
the rhetoric from some in the Trump administration is “profoundly
troubling."
“We’ve got a lot ahead of us in 2026,” Murkowski said. “Greenland - or
taking Greenland, or buying Greenland - should not be on that list. It
should not be an obsession at the highest levels of this
administration.”
Danish officials are hopeful about the upcoming talks with Rubio in
Washington.
“This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government
together with the Greenlandic government,” Danish Defense Minister
Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR.
The island of Greenland, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is
home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people.
Vance criticizes Denmark
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 U.S. and the world's national security
because "the entire missile defense infrastructure is partially
dependent on Greenland.”
He said the fact that Denmark has been a faithful military ally of the
U.S. 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.’”
Right to self-determination
Earlier, Rubio told a select group of U.S. lawmakers that it was the
Republican administration’s intention to eventually purchase Greenland,
as opposed to using military force.
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Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of
Nuuk, Greenland, on March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka,
File)
“Many Greenlanders feel that the remarks made are disrespectful,"
Aaja Chemnitz, one of the two Greenlandic politicians in the Danish
parliament, told The Associated Press. "Many also experience that
these conversations are being discussed over their heads. We have a
firm saying in Greenland, ‘Nothing about Greenland, without
Greenland.’”
She said most Greenlanders "wish for more self-determination,
including independence” but also want to “strengthen cooperation
with our partners” in security and business development as long as
it is based on “mutual respect and recognition of our right to
self-determination.”
Chemnitz denied a claim by Trump that Greenland is "covered with
Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
Greenland is “a long-standing ally and partner to the U.S. and we
have a shared interest in stability, security, and responsible
cooperation in the Arctic,” she said. “There is an agreement with
the U.S. that gives them access to have bases in Greenland if
needed.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has denounced the “law of the
strongest” that is making people “wonder if Greenland will be
invaded.”
In a speech to French ambassadors at the Elysee presidential palace
on Thursday, Macron said: “It’s the greatest disorder, the law of
the strongest, and everyday people wonder whether Greenland will be
invaded, whether Canada will be under the threat of becoming the
51st state (of the United States) or whether Taiwan is to be further
circled.”
He pointed to an “increasingly dysfunctional” world where great
powers, including the U.S and China, have “a real temptation to
divide the world amongst themselves.”
The United States is “gradually turning away from some of its allies
and freeing itself from the international rules,” Macron said.
Surveillance operations for the US
The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the
U.K. 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 defense
agreement between Denmark and the U.S.. 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
defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. 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 defense of Greenland’
Last year, Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow U.S.
military bases on Danish soil. The legislation widens a previous
military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration,
where U.S. troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the
Scandinavian country.
Denmark is also moving to strengthen its military presence around
Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic.
Last year, the government announced a 14.6 billion-kroner ($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.”
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Konstantin Toropin in
Washington and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
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