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US Vice President JD Vance said that he's joining his wife on a trip to Greenland later this week, suggesting in an online video that global security is at stake.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said in a video. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.”
US President Donald Trump irked much of Europe by suggesting that his country should, in some form, control the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark. As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia also seek access to its waterways and the nearby natural resources.
The office of second lady Usha Vance said Monday that she would depart Friday for Greenland and return Sunday. Vance and one of her three children had planned to visit historic sites and learn about Greenland's culture, but her husband's participation has reoriented the trip around national security.
The US vice president said he didn't want to let his wife “have all that fun by herself" and said he plans to visit a Space Force outpost in the northwest coast of Greenland. Vance said that other countries have threatened Greenland as well as the United States and Canada.
Usha Vance attends a campaign rally (Source: Associated Press)
Vance said that leaders in Denmark and North America had “ignored” Greenland for “far too long”.
The visit to Pituffik Space Base will take place instead of Usha Vance’s previously announced trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut.
But Dwayne Ryan Menezes, founder and managing director of the Polar Research & Policy Initiative, said that the Trump administration's “intimidation” of Greenland could backfire.
Menezes said if Trump was “smart enough” to understand Greenland's strategic importance that he should also be "smart enough to know there is no greater way to weaken America’s hand and hurt its long-term interests than turning its back on its allies, the principal asymmetrical advantage it enjoys over its adversaries”.
Ahead of the US vice president's announcement that he would join his wife, discontent from the governments of Greenland and Denmark had been growing sharper, with the Greenland government posting on Facebook that it had “not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, told Danish national broadcasts that it was “unacceptable pressure”.
Still, Vance is allowed to visit the space base, said Marc Jacobsen, a professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, because of a 1951 agreement between Denmark and the US regarding the defence of Greenland.
“What is controversial here is all about the timing," he said. “Greenland and Denmark have stated very clearly that they don’t want the US to visit right now, when Greenland doesn’t have a government in place.”
Usha Vance plans a trip to Greenland, the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark that President Donald Trump has suggested the United States should take control over.
World
Monday 8:11am
The party leaders released their statement after Trump reiterated his desire to take control of Greenland.
World
Sat, Mar 15
Greenland's prime minister warned of "American aggression" and lamented a "mess" caused by the upcoming visit.
World
Tue, Mar 25
During his first term, Trump floated the idea of purchasing the world’s largest island, even as Denmark, a NATO ally, insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland also have firmly rejected Trump’s plans.
Trump's return to the White House has included a desire for territorial expansion, with the US president seeking to add Canada as a 51st state and resume control of the Panama Canal. He has also indicated that US interests could take over the land in the war-torn Gaza Strip from Israel and convert it into a luxury outpost.