“Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And the problem is there's not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there's everything we can do."
Earlier on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met at the White House with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance.
After the meeting, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said the United States and Denmark had agreed to set up a working group to discuss a broad range of issues related to Greenland, possibly in the coming weeks.
'We didn’t manage to change the American position'
At the same time, they said Washington had not shifted from its position that the United States must take control of Greenland—an outcome both described as an unacceptable violation of sovereignty.
“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen told reporters outside the Danish embassy in Washington. “It’s clear that the president has this wish of taking over Greenland.”
Before the talks, Trump wrote on social media that NATO would be “far more formidable and effective” if Greenland were under US control, adding that “anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Greenland’s government said on Wednesday that Denmark was increasing its military presence on the island in coordination with NATO, as tensions rise over Arctic security.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Warsaw would do everything possible to prevent divisions within NATO over Greenland, while Polish President Karol Nawrocki said the island's strategic importance required broader allied discussions and expressed hope for a diplomatic resolution between the United States and Denmark.
Trump said on Sunday that the United States would take control of Greenland “one way or the other.”
European Union Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has warned that a US military takeover of Greenland would effectively spell the end of NATO.