Latest news with #AvannaataQimussersu
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Greenlanders embrace Danish PM after JD Vance's disastrous visit
The people of Greenland have warmly welcomed the Danish prime minister after pointedly rebuffing US vice-president JD Vance and Usha Vance, the second lady, during their visit last week. Mette Frederiksen was cheered upon her arrival in the Danish overseas territory for a three-day visit that has been characterised as a show of solidarity in the face of repeated US take-over threats. One resident shouting from a window said: 'Hey Mette! Thanks for being here,' according to Danish public broadcaster DR. Footage of the prime minister descending the steps of her aeroplane shows two people embracing her. The scenes marked a stark contrast from the arrival of Mr Vance and his wife at a US airbase on the island on 24 March, when no official representatives from Greenland or Denmark came to greet them. 'It is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united,' Ms Frederiksen said after arriving. Her visit is timed to reassure the island's 57,000 residents, the vast majority of whom want to become independent from Denmark but do not wish to become part of the United States, polls show. Donald Trump has repeatedly said the US should take over Greenland for security reasons and has not ruled out the possibility of using military force to do so, causing relations with Denmark to sour. In a pointed message to Mr Trump, Mette Frederiksen said 'you cannot annex another country.' The vice president and his wife were widely mocked when the second lady's plans for a solo visit to the island were jettisoned after locals refused to turn-out to greet her. Mrs Vance had originally been slated to visit the territory with one of her sons to watch the Avannaata Qimussersu dog-sled race in Sisimiut. However, the programme was reorganised amid diplomatic backlash, with Mr Vance announcing he would join his wife at the last minute. Reports later emerged that US representatives had spent a week canvassing door-to-door in Nuuk ahead of the diplomatic sojourn to sound out if residents would welcome a visit from Mrs Vance. The US advances were shot down by Greenlandic residents, according to TV 2 reporter Jesper Steinmetz, who said the 'Americans' charm offensive mission has failed'. During the visit, which lasted only a matter of hours, Mr Vance addressed US troops at a Pituffik military base, where he criticised Denmark for not having 'done a good job by the people of Greenland' by 'underinvesting' in security. Mr Vance declared that the US could no longer 'bury our head in the snow' and ignore China's attempts to establish itself in the semi-autonomous territory. He also explicitly urged Greenlanders to vote for independence from Denmark, urging its citizens to join the US's 'security umbrella' in comments that caused outrage in Copenhagen. Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Greenland's foreign minister, responded in a post on social media that 'we are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it's being delivered'. Meeting on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, Marco Rubio, the US state secretary, reassured Mr Rasmussen of the 'strong' ties between the countries. According to The Washington Post, the White House is currently estimating the cost for the US federal government to control Greenland, and the potential revenues it could derive from exploiting its largely untapped natural resources. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Greenlanders embrace Danish PM after JD Vance's disastrous visit
The people of Greenland have warmly welcomed the Danish prime minister after pointedly rebuffing US vice-president JD Vance and Usha Vance, the second lady, during their visit last week. Mette Frederiksen was cheered upon her arrival in the Danish overseas territory for a three-day visit that has been characterised as a show of solidarity in the face of repeated US take-over threats. One resident shouting from a window said: 'Hey Mette! Thanks for being here,' according to Danish public broadcaster DR. Footage of the prime minister descending the steps of her aeroplane shows two people embracing her. The scenes marked a stark contrast from the arrival of Mr Vance and his wife at a US airbase on the island on 24 March, when no official representatives from Greenland or Denmark came to greet them. 'It is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united,' Ms Frederiksen said after arriving. Her visit is timed to reassure the island's 57,000 residents, the vast majority of whom want to become independent from Denmark but do not wish to become part of the United States, polls show. Donald Trump has repeatedly said the US should take over Greenland for security reasons and has not ruled out the possibility of using military force to do so, causing relations with Denmark to sour. In a pointed message to Mr Trump, Mette Frederiksen said 'you cannot annex another country.' Holy Cow! Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen just sent a very stern, serious and condemning message to Donald Trump about his attempts to annex Greenland! "When you ask our businesses to invest into the US. They do. When you ask us to spend more on defense. We do. And… — Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) April 3, 2025 The vice president and his wife were widely mocked when the second lady's plans for a solo visit to the island were jettisoned after locals refused to turn-out to greet her. Mrs Vance had originally been slated to visit the territory with one of her sons to watch the Avannaata Qimussersu dog-sled race in Sisimiut. However, the programme was reorganised amid diplomatic backlash, with Mr Vance announcing he would join his wife at the last minute. Reports later emerged that US representatives had spent a week canvassing door-to-door in Nuuk ahead of the diplomatic sojourn to sound out if residents would welcome a visit from Mrs Vance. The US advances were shot down by Greenlandic residents, according to TV 2 reporter Jesper Steinmetz, who said the 'Americans' charm offensive mission has failed'. During the visit, which lasted only a matter of hours, Mr Vance addressed US troops at a Pituffik military base, where he criticised Denmark for not having 'done a good job by the people of Greenland' by 'underinvesting' in security. Mr Vance declared that the US could no longer 'bury our head in the snow' and ignore China's attempts to establish itself in the semi-autonomous territory. He also explicitly urged Greenlanders to vote for independence from Denmark, urging its citizens to join the US's 'security umbrella' in comments that caused outrage in Copenhagen. Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Greenland's foreign minister, responded in a post on social media that 'we are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it's being delivered'. Meeting on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, Marco Rubio, the US state secretary, reassured Mr Rasmussen of the 'strong' ties between the countries. According to The Washington Post, the White House is currently estimating the cost for the US federal government to control Greenland, and the potential revenues it could derive from exploiting its largely untapped natural resources.
Boston Globe
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Vance and wife to tour US military post in Greenland after diplomatic spat over uninvited visit
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday that the visit, which was originally set for three days, created 'unacceptable pressure.' On Thursday she was cited by Danish public broadcaster DR as saying: 'We really want to work with the Americans on defense and security in the kingdom. But Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.' Advertisement Initially, Usha Vance had announced a solo trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut. Her husband then subsequently said he would join her on that trip, only to change that itinerary again — after protests from Greenland and Denmark — to a one-day visit of the couple to the military post only. Nonetheless, in an interview on Wednesday, Trump repeated his desire for U.S. control of Greenland. Asked if the people there were 'eager' to become U.S. citizens, Trump said he didn't know 'but I think we have to do it, and we have to convince them.' As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia seek access to its waterways and natural resources. During his first term, Trump floated the idea of purchasing the world's largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn't for sale. The people of Greenland also have firmly rejected Trump's plans. Advertisement Vance has several times criticized long-standing European allies for relying on military support from the United States, openly antagonizing partners in ways that have generated concerns about the reliability of the U.S. In the meantime, opponents of Trump's plans to control Greenland, announced a rally in front of the American embassy in the Danish capital for Saturday, DR reported Thursday. The protesters were planning to speak out against 'American pressure against Greenland and Denmark' and 'unwanted visits from the U.S. government,' DR reported.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
VP's Greenland journey: Family vacation or expansionist plot?
President Donald Trump's threats to control Greenland are growing more intense — and Greenland and Denmark's leaders are growing increasingly defensive. Vice President JD Vance, his wife, Usha, and a U.S. delegation that includes embattled national security adviser Mike Waltz are heading to the Arctic island Friday, where they'll visit a U.S. Space Force base to 'check out what's going on with the security there,' as Vance said Tuesday on a video in social media. The trip, which has had a chaotic rollout, comes as the president is accelerating his aggression toward Greenland, saying 'we'll go as far as we have to go' to bring it under U.S. control, despite opposition from the people who live there. And it highlights the tricky politics of Trump's expansionary inclinations — and how seriously Danish and Greenlandic officials are taking the president's intentions. 'The Greenlanders are feeling quite uneasy, and there are concerns about what this might lead to,' said Minna Ålander, a fellow on transatlantic defense and security at the Center for European Policy Analysis. One senior White House official told POLITICO that Vance would emphasize how Danish leaders — on whom Greenland relies for financial and military support — 'have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair.' The trip was initially pitched innocently as a mission of cultural goodwill and a Vance family vacation. On Sunday, the first lady's office announced that she would travel to the world's largest island with her young son 'to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland's national dogsled race.' 'I'm also coming to celebrate the long history of respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years,' she said in a video posted to social media. The backlash was swift. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said it was 'clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,' and the Greenlandic government wrote on Facebook that it 'has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.' Even the group behind the dogsled race, Kalaallit Nunaanni Qimussertartut Kattuffiat, wrote Sunday that it 'did not invite them.' 'Certainly, a visit like this would be welcome if it didn't come alongside veiled threats of annexation, but it is, and so it's seen as provocative,' said Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center. Then, on Tuesday, the vice president announced he would be joining Usha — and that instead of the dogsled race, they'd be visiting Pituffik Space Base, high above the Arctic circle and far from Greenlandic civilization. Two people familiar with Vance's thinking, granted anonymity to speak freely, attributed the change from the dogsled race to the space base to a last-minute decision by the vice president to join his wife. One of the people said he'd been 'super jealous' when Donald Trump Jr. visited the island in January, so his team 'moved the trip around to accommodate him.' But Vance's involvement in the trip is far more than the benign family adventure the people around him have suggested. The vice president, who appears to have real influence on the administration's foreign policy, is burnishing his credentials as one of the biggest Euro-skeptics in a White House full of them, while attaching himself to a project of personal importance to Trump. Still, Denmark and Greenland welcomed the change in the delegation's itinerary from a central destination to a U.S. military base far from Nuuk. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the shift 'a positive development' and a sign that the Americans 'have understood the resistance to the U.S. overtures in Greenland.' And Frederiksen framed it as a win for the Greenlandic people, writing on Facebook: 'You have not been cowed. You have stood up for who you are – and you have shown what you stand for. That has my deepest respect.' Even as the delegation adopted a less provocative itinerary, the president was ramping up his attacks. 'We'll go as far as we have to go,' Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. 'We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark.' 'We need it,' the president said the same day in a radio interview. 'We have to have it.' Adding to European suspicions about Trump's expansionist intentions, Russian President Vladimir Putin jumped into the fray on Thursday, saying during the International Arctic Forum that 'it would be a great mistake to believe' that Trump's goal of annexing Greenland is 'just some eccentric talk.' Putin's comments, laying down a predicate for U.S. expansion by referencing Civil War era discussions in Washington about the value of Greenland, reflected his interest in reestablishing stronger bilateral relations with the U.S. now that Trump is back in office. By linking America's potential interests in annexing Greenland with his own invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leader appeared to have two goals. He wanted to justify his country's claims just as Trump is eager to begin negotiations aimed at ending that war. And he wanted to deepen the growing rift between the U.S. and Europe, which is deeply resistant to U.S. expansion plans involving a territory now tied to Denmark. The Trump administration's strategy for taking Greenland is now tied to diminishing Denmark's role. 'As the Vice President has said, previous U.S. leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland's Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island,' Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, said in a statement to POLITICO. 'The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island.' Greenland, which has a population of about 60,000, has had its own government and parliament since 1979 but relies on Denmark for economic and military support. Earlier this month, an opposition party favoring a gradual path toward independence from Denmark won a parliamentary election. A recent poll found that only 6 percent of Greenlanders are in favor of becoming part of the U.S. 'They don't want to exchange one colonial power for another. They want to be an independent country,' said Ålander, adding: "The question everyone in Europe is asking is: Do they misunderstand the interests of Greenlanders? Or do they just not care?"
Politico
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Politico
VP's Greenland journey: Family vacation or expansionist plot?
President Donald Trump's threats to control Greenland are growing more intense — and Greenland and Denmark's leaders are growing increasingly defensive. Vice President JD Vance, his wife, Usha, and a U.S. delegation that includes embattled national security adviser Mike Waltz are heading to the Arctic island Friday, where they'll visit a U.S. Space Force base to 'check out what's going on with the security there,' as Vance said Tuesday on a video in social media . The trip, which has had a chaotic rollout, comes as the president is accelerating his aggression toward Greenland, saying 'we'll go as far as we have to go' to bring it under U.S. control, despite opposition from the people who live there. And it highlights the tricky politics of Trump's expansionary inclinations — and how seriously Danish and Greenlandic officials are taking the president's intentions. 'The Greenlanders are feeling quite uneasy, and there are concerns about what this might lead to,' said Minna Ålander, a fellow on transatlantic defense and security at the Center for European Policy Analysis. One senior White House official told POLITICO that Vance would emphasize how Danish leaders — on whom Greenland relies for financial and military support — 'have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair.' The trip was initially pitched innocently as a mission of cultural goodwill and a Vance family vacation. On Sunday, the first lady's office announced that she would travel to the world's largest island with her young son 'to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland's national dogsled race.' 'I'm also coming to celebrate the long history of respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years,' she said in a video posted to social media. The backlash was swift. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said it was ' clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,' and the Greenlandic government wrote on Facebook that it 'has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.' Even the group behind the dogsled race, Kalaallit Nunaanni Qimussertartut Kattuffiat, wrote Sunday that it 'did not invite them.' 'Certainly, a visit like this would be welcome if it didn't come alongside veiled threats of annexation, but it is, and so it's seen as provocative,' said Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center. Then, on Tuesday, the vice president announced he would be joining Usha — and that instead of the dogsled race, they'd be visiting Pituffik Space Base, high above the Arctic circle and far from Greenlandic civilization. Two people familiar with Vance's thinking, granted anonymity to speak freely, attributed the change from the dogsled race to the space base to a last-minute decision by the vice president to join his wife. One of the people said he'd been 'super jealous' when Donald Trump Jr. visited the island in January, so his team 'moved the trip around to accommodate him.' But Vance's involvement in the trip is far more than the benign family adventure the people around him have suggested. The vice president, who appears to have real influence on the administration's foreign policy, is burnishing his credentials as one of the biggest Euro-skeptics in a White House full of them, while attaching himself to a project of personal importance to Trump. Still, Denmark and Greenland welcomed the change in the delegation's itinerary from a central destination to a U.S. military base far from Nuuk. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the shift 'a positive development' and a sign that the Americans 'have understood the resistance to the U.S. overtures in Greenland.' And Frederiksen framed it as a win for the Greenlandic people, writing on Facebook : 'You have not been cowed. You have stood up for who you are – and you have shown what you stand for. That has my deepest respect.' Even as the delegation adopted a less provocative itinerary, the president was ramping up his attacks. 'We'll go as far as we have to go,' Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. 'We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark.' 'We need it,' the president said the same day in a radio interview. 'We have to have it.' Adding to European suspicions about Trump's expansionist intentions, Russian President Vladimir Putin jumped into the fray on Thursday, saying during the International Arctic Forum that 'it would be a great mistake to believe' that Trump's goal of annexing Greenland is 'just some eccentric talk.' Putin's comments, laying down a predicate for U.S. expansion by referencing Civil War era discussions in Washington about the value of Greenland, reflected his interest in reestablishing stronger bilateral relations with the U.S. now that Trump is back in office. By linking America's potential interests in annexing Greenland with his own invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leader appeared to have two goals. He wanted to justify his country's claims just as Trump is eager to begin negotiations aimed at ending that war. And he wanted to deepen the growing rift between the U.S. and Europe, which is deeply resistant to U.S. expansion plans involving a territory now tied to Denmark. The Trump administration's strategy for taking Greenland is now tied to diminishing Denmark's role. 'As the Vice President has said, previous U.S. leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland's Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island,' Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, said in a statement to POLITICO. 'The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island.' Greenland, which has a population of about 60,000, has had its own government and parliament since 1979 but relies on Denmark for economic and military support. Earlier this month, an opposition party favoring a gradual path toward independence from Denmark won a parliamentary election . A recent poll found that only 6 percent of Greenlanders are in favor of becoming part of the U.S. 'They don't want to exchange one colonial power for another. They want to be an independent country,' said Ålander, adding: 'The question everyone in Europe is asking is: Do they misunderstand the interests of Greenlanders? Or do they just not care?'
