U.S. Vice President JD Vance will visit Greenland on Friday as President Donald Trump renews calls for the United States’ control over the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
In a changed version of a trip plan that had angered authorities in both Greenland and Denmark, Vance is expected to fly to the U.S. military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island.
The delegation, which will also include Vance’s wife Usha, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was scheduled to land at around 1530 GMT.
Travel Plan Changed
Protests by residents had been planned in connection with the visit, but the changed travel plan means Vance and his wife will not meet the public.
Under the terms of a 1951 agreement, the U.S. is entitled to visit its base whenever it wants, as long as it notifies Greenland and Copenhagen. Pituffik is located along the shortest route from Europe to North America and is vital for the U.S. ballistic missile warning system.
Vance is visiting Greenland days after Trump reiterated his desire to take over the mineral-rich island, saying the U.S. needs the strategically located island for national and international security.
“So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark,” he said.
Greenland’s Untapped Resource Potential
The island, whose capital, Nuuk, is closer to New York than the Danish capital, Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and natural gas wealth, but development has been slow, and the mining sector has seen very limited U.S. investment. Mining companies operating in Greenland are mostly Australian, Canadian or British.
A White House official has said Greenland has an ample supply of rare earth minerals that would power the next generation of the U.S. economy.
The question now is how far Trump is willing to push his idea of taking over the island, said Andreas Oesthagen, a senior researcher on Arctic politics and security at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
“It is still unlikely that the United States will use military means,” he told Reuters.
“But it is unfortunately likely that President Trump and Vice President Vance will continue to use other means of pressure, such as ambiguous statements, semi-official visits to Greenland, and economic instruments,” he added.
Coalition Negotiations
The initial plan for the trip had been for Vance’s wife to visit a dog-sled race on the island together with Waltz, even though they were not invited by authorities in either Greenland or Denmark.
Many Greenlanders objected to the original itinerary because it bypassed official channels, especially during the sensitive period of coalition negotiations following an election this month, with Acting Prime Minister Egede describing it as “unacceptable treatment, unworthy among close friends and allies”.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the initial plans for the U.S. visit “unacceptable”. Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen later welcomed news of the revised visit as a positive, de-escalating step.
By revising the trip, the Trump administration is seeking to refocus the discussion on the topics it is interested in: the U.S. presence on Greenland, military capabilities available, and the wider security of the Arctic, said Catherine Sendak, head of the Transatlantic Defense and Security programme at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank.
“A change of course was needed,” Sendak told Reuters.
Nuuk Residents Express Anger
However, some residents in Nuuk remained angry at the Trump administration ahead of Vance’s visit.
“I am a human. Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale,” Tungutaq Larsen, a filmmaker, told Reuters.
Polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States. Anti-American protesters, some wearing “Make America Go Away” caps and holding “Yankees Go Home” banners, have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in Greenland.
On Thursday, residents in Nuuk planted Greenlandic flags in the snow and a cardboard sign in English that said “Our Land. Our Future”.
Coalition Government
The pro-business party that came first in the election is also due to present plans for a coalition on Friday, public broadcaster KNR said.
“The coalition agreement could not have come at a better time as it will signal to the Vances the unity forged in defiance of Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and their ill-timed visit,” Dwayne Ryan Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research & Policy Initiative think tank, said.
Oesthagen said the real winner from the drama over the trip was Russia, which “gets exactly what they want: discord in the transatlantic relationship”.
On Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin said geopolitical rivalries in the Arctic were intensifying and that Moscow was boosting its military capabilities in the region.
He said that Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland were “serious” but had nothing to do with Russia.
(With inputs from Reuters)
