Trump conjures a perfect storm, Vance lands in Greenland

PITUFFIK (DENMARK)(Reuters) – U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Greenland on Friday for a visit to a military base regarded as a provocation by Copenhagen and Nuuk as President Donald Trump pushes to annex the strategically situated, resource-rich Danish territory.

Trump has said he believes the United States needs the sprawling Arctic island for national and international security and he has refused to discount the use of force to obtain it.

“We have to have it,” the U.S. president said again on Wednesday.

The US delegation, which also included National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, arrived at the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland at 12:52 pm (1552 GMT), journalists aboard the flight from Washington said.

“Everybody knows the president’s very interested in Arctic security, and it’s only going to get I think bigger in the coming decades,” Vance said as he walked into the base’s mess hall.

Also present were his wife Usha, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and former Homeland Security Adviser Julia Nesheiwat, the wife of Waltz.

They were scheduled to meet with members of the U.S. Space Force and to “check out what’s going on with the security” of Greenland, Vance said in a video message this week.

Danish and Greenlandic officials have insisted, with European Union backing, that the United States will not get Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, berated the U.S. decision to invite itself to the Arctic island, for what had originally been a wider visit to society across Greenland, as “unacceptable pressure” on both Greenland and Denmark.

A January poll showed a majority of Greenlanders opposed US annexation.

Key base –

US vice-president angered Danes in early February when he said Denmark was “not doing its job” protecting Greenland and “not being a good ally”.

An angry Frederiksen shot back that Denmark had been a faithful US ally for decades, “a loyal US partner who has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in Iraq and in Afghanistan for many, many decades”.

The Pituffik base is a key element of Washington’s missile defence architecture, its position in the Arctic placing it on the shortest path for missiles fired at the United States from Russia.

Called Thule Air Base until 2023, it was a warning post for potential strikes from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

It is also a strategic location for air and submarine surveillance in the northern hemisphere, a task that Washington says Denmark has neglected.

Vance is “right in that we didn’t meet the American wishes for an increased presence, but we have taken steps towards meeting that wish”, Marc Jacobsen, a senior lecturer at the Royal Danish Defence College, told AFP.

He said the Trump administration must lay out more detailed asks if it wanted an appropriate Danish response.

In January, Copenhagen announced it would spend almost $2.0 billion to strengthen its forces in the Arctic and north Atlantic, including purchasing specialized vessels and surveillance equipment.

Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he viewed Trump’s plans to purchase Greenland as “serious.”

“NATO countries, in general, are increasingly designating the far north a springboard for possible conflicts,” he said, in comments that will be particularly worrying to Finland and Sweden.

Frosty response –

Greenland has a population of 57,000, the majority of whom are Inuits.

It is thought to have vast untapped mineral and oil reserves, though exploration for oil and uranium is prohibited.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former mining executive, said Thursday he hoped the United States and Greenland could work together to mine minerals “to bring jobs and economic opportunity to Greenland and critical minerals and resources to the US”.

While Trump has expressed his wish to annex the ice-covered territory, which wants to make please, to the earth.

Although independence is supported by all of Greenland’s political parties, none of them endorse the notion of becoming part of the United States.

Following elections held earlier this month, and just hours prior to the US delegation’s visit, a new broad, four-party coalition government was announced in Greenland.

The incoming prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, stated that the territory saw a need for unity during this time.

“It is very necessary that we put aside our quarrels and differences — this is the only way we will be able to deal with the tremendous pressure we are facing from without,” he said upon presenting his government.

Nielsen added that the US administration was “not showing respect to an ally” by visiting Greenland when there was no government there in office.

Then Usha, Vance’s wife, was supposed to fly to Greenland alone with her son, and go to a dogsled race in the town of Sisimiut.

Locals said they had intended to give her a cold shoulder and planned several protests.

The visit to Sisimiut was subsequently scrapped, and replaced with the visit to the military base.