Vice President JD Vance spent three hours in Greenland on Friday touring a U.S. navy base, on a contentious journey pushed by the Trump administration and angrily opposed by Greenlanders.
In remarks with reporters, Mr. Vance stated the US needed to “get up” to China and Russia’s designs on the island.
“We will’t simply bury our head within the sand,” he stated, “or, in Greenland, bury our head within the snow.”
President Trump has been insisting that the US take over the icebound island, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark and has been related to Denmark for greater than 300 years. Mr. Trump has been fixated on Greenland since his first time period in workplace and lately vowed to “get it — by some means.”
Mr. Vance took a softer tone, saying that the US would respect Greenland’s proper to self-determination and that utilizing navy pressure, which Mr. Trump refused to rule out, wouldn’t be needed.
However Greenlanders have resisted the overtures. The federal government of Greenland didn’t invite Mr. Vance or the others in his group, which included his spouse, Usha, in addition to the nationwide safety adviser and the power secretary. Protests had been deliberate in Nuuk, the capital, the place Ms. Vance was initially scheduled to go to, and that a part of the journey was scrapped a number of days in the past.
As a substitute, the complete go to was lowered to the Pituffik Space Base, a missile protection station removed from any city — or any likelihood of an embarrassing TV second.
The White Home’s authentic plan was for Ms. Vance to attend a well-known canine sled race this weekend and see different cultural websites, in an effort to deliver the US and Greenland nearer.
The plan backfired. Protesters had been gearing as much as line the street from the airport into city. Greenland’s authorities blasted the go to as “extremely aggressive.” Even the organizers of the canine sled race stated they by no means requested Ms. Vance to attend within the first place.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Vance contested that, saying she had obtained “a number of invites.”
Because the Vances sat down for lunch on the base, Mr. Vance made a colourful comment about how chilly it was and stated, “No person instructed me,” prompting laughs.
The nationwide safety adviser, Michael Waltz, gave a number of remarks however stated nothing concerning the intense criticism he was going through for discussing military plans over a messaging app in a bunch that included a journalist.
Overseas coverage analysts stated the revised journey was a watered-down model of what the White Home actually needed.
“It’s a tactical retreat,” stated Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst primarily based in Copenhagen. “On the one hand, they de-escalated by not finishing up the complete cultural mission and skipping the P.R. stunt. However, it’s a symbolic escalation that the highest-ranking official is visiting Greenland.”
Mr. Vance is essentially the most senior American official to ever go to the island, in response to international coverage specialists.
Greenland’s dimension — it’s the world’s largest island — and its location in North America alongside the more and more contested Arctic Ocean appears to be the foundation of Mr. Trump’s fascination. Members of his internal circle, together with Mr. Vance, have additionally spoken of Greenland’s “incredible natural resources” (although most of them are buried beneath ice).
Simply this week, Mr. Trump once more insisted that Greenland was very important to American safety, saying, “We want it. We have now to have it.”
Greenland had been steadily inching away from Denmark, with the island gaining extra energy over its personal affairs and Greenlanders exhibiting extra curiosity in independence. There’s — or was, till lately — a major motion inside Greenland that needed to kind a more in-depth alliance with the US, which has stationed troops on the island since World Conflict II.
However the temper is popping towards Mr. Trump, and plenty of strange Greenlanders didn’t need Mr. Vance to come back in any respect.
“I don’t know what he desires,” stated Tupaarnaq Kanuthsen, a lady strolling by Nuuk on Friday. “He’s not welcome.”
Shortly earlier than Mr. Vance arrived, Greenland introduced a brand new authorities; the island held elections a number of weeks in the past however no occasion received a majority.
The brand new authorities can be a coalition of all of the island’s main events besides one — the Naleraq occasion, which has the closest connections to Mr. Trump. One of many occasion’s outstanding members has been open about his help for Mr. Trump and attended the president’s inauguration.
Politicians from the ruling coalition downplayed the importance of their exclusion of the Naleraq occasion, citing different causes they couldn’t work with its members.
However members of Naleraq, which got here in second in the course of the election, didn’t purchase it.
“I feel our occasion has been misunderstood,” stated Qupanuk Olsen, a widely known social media influencer elected on the Naleraq ticket.
“Being open to cooperation with the U.S. is being interpreted as sucking as much as them,” she stated. “Nevertheless it’s actually nearly openness to enterprise and commerce. Trump is simply president for 4 extra years; we’ve got to assume 10, 20 years forward. We will’t simply shut out the U.S. fully.”
