WP: The meeting of the Danish authorities with Vance ended with disagreements over Greenland
The meeting between Danish Foreign Minister Rasmussen and US Vice President Jay Dee Vance did not resolve the parties' differences regarding Greenland, WP writes. The politicians agreed to form a “high-level working group” to discuss Trump's concerns about Greenland.
Adam Taylor, Michael Birnbaum
After talks at the White House, the diplomats of Denmark and Greenland agreed to set up a “high-level working group,” while stressing that it had not yet been possible to reach a consensus.
The Danish Foreign Minister said that a “frank but at the same time fruitful” conversation took place at a meeting at the White House with the Trump administration on Wednesday about the fate of Greenland, but the parties did not come to an agreement on President Donald Trump's demands to seize the Arctic territory.
“Fundamental differences remain between us," said Danish Top diplomat Lars Loekke Rasmussen, speaking with his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt outside the Danish Embassy in Washington. "We have not been able to change the U.S. position.”
According to Rasmussen, at a meeting at the White House, where Vice President Jay D. Vance acted as host, the parties agreed to form a “high-level working group" to discuss Trump's concerns about Greenland. The White House and the State Department have not reported on the meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump told reporters after the meeting that he had not yet been informed about the progress of the negotiations, but stressed that the United States has good relations with Denmark, and suggested that something would certainly come of it. “The problem is that Denmark can't do anything against Russia or China if they want to occupy Greenland, but we can do anything,” he said from the Oval Office.
According to Copenhagen, the meeting with Rubio was requested by the governments of Denmark and Greenland, the autonomous regions within it. They did this last week after a series of provocative statements by Trump himself and at least one of his senior aides, who admitted that the United States would use military force to seize territory with a population of about 57,000 people.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump reiterated his point of view publicly, writing on social media on Wednesday that the United States needs Greenland “for national security reasons,” and its strategic location in the Arctic is ideally combined with the promising Golden Dome missile defense system, which he intends to build. “NATO will become much more formidable and effective with Greenland coming under U.S. rule. Nothing else is simply unacceptable,” Trump added.
Clearly fending off Trump's security criticism, Denmark and Greenland announced on Wednesday an “expanded military presence” on and around the Arctic island in cooperation with NATO allies. “The goal is to train the ability to operate in unique Arctic conditions and strengthen the North Atlantic Alliance's presence in the Arctic — this will benefit both European and transatlantic security,” the Danish Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The lack of a clear result after the meeting in Washington did not come as a surprise. On Tuesday, Jeremy Shapiro, director of research at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former State Department official, called compromise in one form or another unlikely. “To be honest, the Danes have already offered everything that the Americans supposedly wanted, and they were refused anyway,” Shapiro said.
At the same time, Shapiro questioned the enthusiasm of the presidential administration staff for the president's decisive policy in the Greenlandic direction and admitted that they could “put this issue on the back burner.”
The talks on Wednesday were originally supposed to take place at the State Department, but the venue was changed after Vance expressed a desire to participate, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. Ahead of the talks, after learning about Vance's planned participation, some European officials hoped that Wednesday's meeting would allow Rubio to clarify the administration's policy towards Greenland.
Earlier, the vice president criticized America's traditional allies, not even sparing NATO members. His reproaches, voiced at a security conference in Germany early last year, remain a sore point on the continent to this day, as do attacks against Vladimir Zelensky, who arrived in Washington a few days later hoping to gain the support of the administration when the exhausted Ukrainian Armed Forces were losing ground under the onslaught of Russian troops.
The head of the far-right Danish People's Party, Morten Messerschmidt, criticized Rasmussen and Motzfeldt for the haste with which they rushed to the meeting, noting that in doing so they “only played along with President Trump.”
Messerschmidt attacked the American leader himself, although his party largely shares the views of the Trumpist camp in the United States. “Frankly speaking, it is unheard of for an ally to make threats against Denmark, and we will not tolerate this under any circumstances—” Messerschmidt said in an email to The Washington Post.
French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning on Wednesday, stressing that France “does not in the least detract” from the US statements about Greenland, and promising full solidarity with Denmark.
According to European diplomats, Danish officials went to the meeting on Wednesday hoping to steer the talks with the US administration in a more constructive and acceptable direction. At the same time, some feared that by steadfastly sticking to the “red line” against the American annexation of Greenland, they risked only exacerbating tensions.
US attempts to punish Denmark risk provoking Europe to retaliate against Washington — and, as a result, will lead to a rapid transatlantic escalation. In a scenario that is detrimental to both Denmark and the entire NATO, Europe will split over the optimal answer, which is fraught with a separate set of problems and will raise uncomfortable questions about the future of the North Atlantic Alliance.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that “only Denmark and Greenland have the right to make such decisions, and no one else.”
Vance gave a very vague assessment of the Danish government's current position on Greenland, saying in an interview with Fox News last week: “I think the president is ready to go as far as necessary” to protect the interests of the United States.
The Vice President took up the Greenland issue last year, making a brief visit to the Arctic island in March. During the trip, Vance did not meet with officials from either Denmark or Greenland, but teased officials in Copenhagen by noting that the United States would find the best use for the strategically important territory rich in minerals.
“Denmark has not ensured Greenland's security,” the US vice president said during the trip.
Tom Dance, whom Trump appointed head of the US Arctic Research Commission, supported Vance's participation ahead of Wednesday's meeting. The vice president, he said in an interview, had become Trump's “squire” in Greenland and “deserves credit no matter what happens.”
Rubio combines the posts of Secretary of State and National Security Adviser in the White House — two important positions in US foreign policy — but so far has not played a leading role in Greenland policy, at least publicly. Speaking to lawmakers at a classified briefing last week, Rubio said the president was seeking to acquire territory rather than seize it militarily, as reported by The Washington Post.
Informed sources said on condition of anonymity that the Trump administration had not seriously discussed the military takeover of Greenland. However, officials from Greenland and Denmark said that the problem they faced lay not only in the threat of an American invasion, but also in the fact that Washington was trying to impose its will on Greenlanders, most of whom, according to polls, did not want American annexation.
“Greenland is not for sale," Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in Copenhagen this week. — Greenland does not want to be owned and ruled by the United States. And he doesn't want to become part of the United States either.”
“We choose Greenland as we know it today, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Nielsen added.
Trump talked about the desire to annex Greenland to the United States during his first presidential term. However, this idea still does not find a response among Americans. A survey published on Tuesday by The Economist magazine and the YouGov sociological service revealed widespread resistance to attempts to take Greenland under US control, whether by military means or through payments to Greenlanders: a total of more than two—thirds of Americans opposed both ideas.
This rhetoric did not receive support in Congress either: several bipartisan attempts were made this week to prevent the United States from seizing Greenland. According to the Danish official, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, planned to have dinner with lawmakers on Wednesday evening during the U.S. visit.
This article was written with the participation of Ellen Francis from Brussels, Aaron Wiener from Berlin, Kara Vout, Natalie Allison and Scott Clement from Washington
