Talks on Greenland's future were "frank, but also constructive," Denmark's foreign minister said after a White House meeting Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lars Loekke Rasmussen acknowledged a "fundamental disagreement" with the US over President Trump's push to turn the vast Arctic island into American territory, adding that the two sides would essentially "agree to disagree" for now, the New York Times reports. He said a new high-level working group will tackle security and other Greenland issues in the coming weeks.
- "For us, ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the right of self determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable," Rasmussen said at a news conference at the Danish embassy in DC, per CNBC. He said the delegation of officials from Denmark and Greenland, however, "couldn't change the US position" during the talks, the Guardian reports.
Rasmussen argued that Washington doesn't need formal control of Greenland to meet its defense goals, pointing to a Cold War–era agreement that already grants broad US military access. The US once operated multiple bases and stationed up to 10,000 troops there; today it runs just one base with around 200 troops. The foreign minister, a former prime minister, conceded that "there's definitely a new security situation in the Arctic and the High North," but repeatedly stressed that there is "no immediate threat" to Greenland from Russia or China—directly undercutting one of Trump's main justifications for a US takeover. "We have not had a Chinese warship in Greenland for a decade or so," he said.
- Independent experts backed him up, the Times reports. Claims that Russian and Chinese ships are hovering around Greenland are "just not true," said Gabriella Gricius of the Arctic Institute, noting that their vessels are in the Bering Strait, far from the North Atlantic.
- Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, who joined the meeting with US officials, said her government had "shown where our limits are," insisting any solution must respect both Denmark's territorial sovereignty and Greenlanders' right to self-determination.
- Rasmussen described the issue as "very emotional for all of us," citing close personal and military ties between Denmark, Greenland, and the US, and noting that Danes had been killed fighting alongside American troops in Afghanistan. Copenhagen and Nuuk requested the White House meeting, he said, to cool off a dispute that had spilled onto social media and to "bring nuance" to the debate. He said the delegation told Vance and Rubio that it's not easy to think of innovative solutions "when you wake up every morning to different threats," the Guardian reports. Before the meeting, Trump said it was "unacceptable" for the US not to control Greenland.
- Other NATO allies are sending troops to Greenland. Germany and Sweden plan to deploy troops for what Germany describes as a reconnaissance mission "with a view to possible military contributions to support Denmark in guaranteeing security in the region." AFP reports that French troops are expected to join the mission.
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