JD Vance’s visit to Greenland comes amid US President Trump saying he wants to take over the Arctic territory.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has accused the United States of exerting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland in advance of a provocative high-level visit to the Arctic territory led by US Vice President JD Vance.
Vance, who has become the attack dog of US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, will travel with his wife, Usha, and other senior officials to the US’s Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on Friday, “to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with US servicemembers”, his office said in a statement.
“I have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being placed on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2 on Tuesday.
“This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,” Frederiksen said of Washington’s focus on the Danish autonomous overseas territory.
“President Trump is serious. He wants Greenland. Therefore, [this visit] cannot be seen independently of anything else,” she said.
Greenland’s acting head of government, Mute Egede, has labelled the uninvited visit by US officials a “provocation”, as it coincided with government coalition talks in the territory and municipal elections scheduled for the following week.
The outgoing Greenlandic government posted on Facebook that it had not “extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official”.
“The present government is a caretaker government awaiting the formation of a new government coalition and we have kindly requested all countries to respect this process,” it wrote.
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— Greenland in USA&CDA🇬🇱 (@GreenlandRepDC) March 24, 2025
Since returning to power in January, Trump has insisted he wants to take over Greenland for national security purposes, refusing to rule out the use of military force to do so.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said of his Greenland visit in a video shared on social media on Tuesday.
“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,” he said.
Along with Vance and his wife, the visit to the US military base in Greenland will include White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. By visiting the base, Vance has removed some of the risk of violating potential diplomatic taboos by sending a delegation to another country without an official invite.
Vance has already alienated some of the US’s longstanding European allies, publicly accusing them of relying on US military support and being unwilling to devote their own resources to international security.
Denmark and other European countries have also bristled at Trump’s suggestion that the US should take over Greenland – a mineral-rich territory and nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
Greenland has broader strategic value for the US as both China and Russia are also seeking access to its waterways and the nearby natural resources in the Arctic.
“This is a charm offensive without the charm,” Noa Redington, an analyst and former adviser to previous Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, told the Reuters news agency.
“And everyone is upset because it’s so obvious that this is about intimidating the Greenlandic people and provoking Denmark,” he said.
