Washington (AFP) – Vice President JD Vance will visit a US military base in Greenland on Friday, adding to pressure on the autonomous Danish territory that Donald Trump wants to take over. Vance, who has become Trump’s attack dog on foreign policy matters, will travel with his wife Usha to Pituffik Space Base “to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with US servicemembers,” his office said Tuesday in a statement.
The announcement came just hours after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the US second lady’s planned visit to Greenland — prior to the vice president stating he would accompany his wife — as putting “unacceptable pressure” on both the territory and Denmark. “There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video Tuesday.
Since returning to power in January, Trump has insisted he wants the United States to take over Greenland for national security purposes and has refused to rule out the use of force. In his video announcement, Vance said other countries sought to use the territory to “threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and, of course, to threaten the people of Greenland.” Trump has also recently talked about annexing Canada, saying it should become the “51st state” of the United States.
“Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland,” added Vance. Both US and Danish leaders had “ignored Greenland for far too long,” he added. “We think we can take things in a different direction.”
According to Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will also visit Greenland this week, while US media have reported that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will travel there as well. The announcement of Usha Vance’s trip on Monday angered Danish and Greenlandic politicians. “You can’t organize a private visit with official representatives of another country,” Frederiksen told reporters.
The visit comes at a time of political flux in Greenland, where parties are still negotiating to form a new coalition government following a March 11 election. A self-governing Danish territory which is seeking to emancipate itself from Copenhagen, Greenland holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, although 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 due to climate change.
© 2024 AFP
