Denmark welcomes US limiting Greenland visit to military base
Copenhagen – Denmark welcomed on Wednesday Washington's decision to limit a US delegation's visit to Greenland to a US military base, after previous plans for the unexpected trip sparked criticism.
US Vice President JD Vance announced Tuesday that he would accompany his wife Usha on Friday to the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, the Danish self-governing island coveted by President Donald Trump.
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 force to do so.
Vance's announcement came just hours after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede harshly criticised plans by a US delegation to visit the Arctic island uninvited.
Egede had qualified the initial plans as 'foreign interference', noting that the outgoing government had not 'sent out any invitations for visits, private or official'.
Following March 11 elections, Greenland has only a transitional government, with parties still in negotiations to form a new coalition government.
'We have asked all countries to respect this process,' Egede had said in a Facebook post.
Yet the White House announced Sunday that Usha Vance would travel to Greenland from Thursday to Saturday, while Egede had said US national security adviser Mike Waltz was also expected to take part.
US media had reported that Energy Secretary Chris Wright would be part of the visit as well.
Usha Vance had been scheduled to view 'historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage and watch the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland's national dogsled race,' in the southwestern town of Sisimiut, the White House had said.
Frederiksen denounced that visit as 'unacceptable pressure' being put on Greenland and Denmark, and vowed 'to resist'.
– 'Very positive' –
JD Vance said in a video statement that he and Usha would travel only to the Pituffik base to visit US Space Force members based there and 'check out what's going on with the security' of Greenland.
'I think it's very positive that the Americans have cancelled their visit among Greenlandic society. They will only visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,' Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told public broadcaster DR on Wednesday.
'The cars (from the US advance security detail) that were delivered a few days ago are in the process of being sent back home, and the wife of the US vice president and the national security adviser will not visit Greenlandic society,' Lokke Rasmussen said.
'The matter is being wound up and that's positive,' he added.
A US Hercules plane later took off from Nuuk airport, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.com.
Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, said the US change of plan was a 'de-escalation' aimed at saving face after Danish and Greenlandic leaders made it clear the US officials were not welcome.
Locals in Sisimiut, Greenland's second-biggest town of 5,500 people, had announced a protest during Usha Vance's visit, following another anti-US protest outside the US consulate in Nuuk on March 15.
'They didn't want to risk… photos being shown to US voters on social media,' Jacobsen told AFP.
Jacobsen also dismissed Vance's claims in his video announcement that other countries were trying to use the territory to 'threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and, of course, to threaten the people of Greenland'.
'The only country threatening Greenland, that's actually the US,' Jacobsen said. 'If he meant China or Russia, they're not threatening Greenland. They have no interest in attacking Greenland.'
A self-governing territory that is seeking to emancipate itself from Copenhagen, Greenland holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, though oil and uranium exploration are banned.
It is also strategically located between North America and Europe at a time of rising US, Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic, where sea lanes have opened up because of climate change.
Greenland's location also puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States.
Greenlandic officials have repeatedly said the territory does not want to be either Danish or American, but is 'open for business' with everyone.
According to opinion polls, most Greenlanders support independence from Denmark but not annexation by Washington.
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