Greenlanders marched to the US consulate building in Nuuk to protest US President Donald Trump's remarks on the sovereignty of their country. Photo / Getty Images
Greenlanders marched to the US consulate building in Nuuk to protest US President Donald Trump's remarks on the sovereignty of their country. Photo / Getty Images
Greenland’s Prime Minister, Mute Egede, accused Washington on Monday of interfering in its political affairs by sending a US delegation to the Danish territory, which is coveted by US President Donald Trump.
Egede said US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz would visit Greenland this week, with Usha Vance, the wife of US Vice-President JD Vance.
Usha Vance was to attend a dogsled race with her son.
Greenlandic media reports said the delegation also included US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former mining executive.
A Royal Danish Navy ship patrols the island of Greenland on March 16. Denmark announced that it would increase its military presence in the Arctic region after US President Trump's remarks about Greenland. Photo / Getty Images
They showed images of two US Hercules planes on the tarmac at Nuuk airport over the weekend as part of an advance security team dispatched to the vast Arctic island.
Speaking to Greenlandic daily Sermitiaq, Egede said the “only purpose of the visit was a demonstration of power, and the signal should not be misunderstood”.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also slammed the planned visit, telling broadcaster TV2 it showed “an appetite among Americans that is inappropriate”.
Lokke noted that, as the Americans were to visit, “there have just been elections in Greenland and there is no Greenlandic government”.
He has refused to rule out the use of force to achieve that aim.
Greenland – which is seeking to become fully independent from Copenhagen – and Denmark itself have both repeatedly rebuffed Trump, insisting that only Greenlanders can decide their future.
Egede said Washington had previously been told there would be “no talks” on any subject until a new Greenlandic Government was in place to conduct business.
The general election on March 11 left him heading a caretaker Government.
“It should be said clearly that our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Egede said in a post on Facebook.
He added that the US delegation’s visit “cannot be seen as just a private visit”.
“[Waltz] is Trump’s confidant and closest adviser, and his presence in Greenland alone will certainly make the Americans believe in Trump’s mission, and the pressure will increase after the visit,” Egede told Sermitsiaq.
Ulrik Pram Gad of the Danish Institute for International Studies called the visit an “aggressive move” by Washington.
“They haven’t been invited by Greenlanders. They haven’t been invited by the Danes. They just announced that they will go,” he told AFP.
Greenland’s political parties are currently in the process of negotiating a new coalition government following the election, which the centre-right Democrats won.
“Normally, as a friend or ally, you would stay out of that,” Pram Gad said.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen – leader of the Democrats and likely future Greenlandic Prime Minister – has previously criticised Trump’s Greenland ambitions as “inappropriate”.
On Monday, Nielsen stressed that ongoing negotiations for a new coalition Government following the election were continuing and that they would not let themselves “be pressured”.
Pram Gad said that, with no officials to welcome the US delegation, “they will be pushing this point that ‘Okay, nobody’s in control here, there’s a need for us to step in’.”
He said the choice to send Usha Vance was part of a “sham” charm offensive while the inclusion of Chris Wright “sends the signal that we’re after resources here”.
Greenland holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, including rare earths crucial to the green transition and seen as a potential springboard to independence.
It is also strategically located in the Arctic between North America and Europe, with rising US, Chinese and Russian interest in the region as climate change opens up shipping routes previously covered by ice.
According to opinion polls, most of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants of Greenland support independence from Denmark but not annexation by Washington.
