Criticism by Denmark’s leader Mette Frederiksen comes after the White House announced a US delegation would be visiting the Arctic island.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticised the US on Tuesday for putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland, ahead of an unsolicited visit to the Arctic island by members of the Trump administration.
A delegation from Washington including Second Lady Usha Vance, wife of US Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright is set to visit semi-autonomous Danish territory from Thursday until Sunday.
“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 media.
“You cannot make a private visit with official representatives from another country.”
US President Donald Trump on Monday repeated his desire to take over Greenland, using national security as a justification. He said that the upcoming visit was about “friendliness, not provocation”.
However, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede on Monday called the visit “highly aggressive”. He said that there would be no official meetings with the US representatives as the island has just held elections, with a new government yet to be formed.
Egede, who will remain in his post until a new government convenes, wrote on Facebook that there was worry on the island over the visits.
The “only purpose” of a trip by Waltz is “a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood,” Egede said.
Frederiksen referred to Egede’s comments in her interview on Tuesday, saying that it was “clear that when you make a visit in this way, and the Greenlandic politicians clearly say that they do not want the visit, you cannot interpret it as respectful.”
“It is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs, or what Greenland wants,” the Danish leader concluded.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a long-time US ally that has rejected Trump’s overtures. Copenhagen has recognised the island’s right to independence at a time of its choosing.
Last month, JD Vance blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and “not being a good ally” by not countering the Chinese use of sea lanes in the region.
“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?” JD Vance told Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do.”
During the US delegation’s visit to Greenland, Usha Vance and one of her three children will “visit historic sites” and “learn about Greenlandic heritage”, according to her office.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council said that it “should not be a surprise” that Waltz and Wright would visit “a US Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground,” referring to the US Pituffik military space base in northern Greenland.
