Denmark said a “fundamental disagreement” remained after a high-stakes meeting with the US over Greenland as several countries including Germany said they'd send military personnel to the Arctic island.
Foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, agreeing to establish a working group that's set to gather within weeks to plot the way forward, while the US refrained from backing down on its demands. On Thursday, Germany's “exploration mission” will arrive in Nuuk as European nations begin to work out how to ensure security in the region.
“For us, ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the right of self-determination of the Greenland people are of course totally unacceptable and we therefore still have a fundamental disagreement,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters after the talks on Wednesday. “We will, however, continue to talk.”
For Denmark and Greenland, the meeting was an effort to convince the US administration that there's no need to take over the Arctic island — a semi-autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark — as President Donald Trump has threatened to do. The meeting was cast in Danish media as one of the most decisive moments for the Kingdom since World War II.
The vice president's office, when asked for a reaction to the meeting, referred to Trump's earlier social media posts that repeated his demand for the US to take control of Greenland for national security reasons. The White House referred questions back to the vice president's office.
Denmark on Wednesday disclosed plans to beef up military presence in the far North, saying the military drill with NATO allies would be permanent in nature.
Germany is sending 13 personnel to Nuuk Jan. 15 to 17 to “explore the framework conditions for possible military contributions to support Denmark in ensuring security in the region, for example, for maritime surveillance capabilities,” according to a statement from the German Defense Ministry. Sweden, Norway and the UK also announced they were sending military personnel.
While Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Germany planned to propose setting up a joint North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission to monitor and protect security interests in the Arctic region, the decision to send armed forces personnel to world's biggest island as early as this week highlights the urgency with which European nations seek to respond to US threats over Greenland.
The Danes argue that a comprehensive defense agreement dating back to 1951 already allows the US to use the territory as it needs to for defenses — rendering any takeover futile. It was on that basis that Denmark sought to convince the US, to no avail.
“We agreed that it makes sense to try to sit down on a high level to explore whether there's possibilities to accommodate the concerns of the president while we at the same time respect the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Rasmussen said. “Whether that's doable — yeah, I hope and I would like to express that it could take down the temperature.
