Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Tuesday said his people “choose Denmark” and “choose NATO” instead of the United States, amid President Trump’s calls for the island territory to be annexed into the union.
“If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Nielsen said at a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen. “We choose NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark and the European Union.”
“The time has come to stand together,” Nielsen added. “Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”
Nielsen said Greenland is facing a “geopolitical crisis,” and Frederiksen added that it has not been easy facing “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally,”
The two spoke ahead of Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s upcoming visit to Greenland on Wednesday. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen requested a meeting with Rubio following President Trump’s intensifying rhetoric over the U.S. acquiring Greenland.
“U.S. Vice President JD Vance also wanted to participate in the meeting, and he will host the meeting, which will therefore be held at the White House,” Rasmussen said to reporters in Copenhagen earlier Tuesday
Nielsen and Frederiksen said their governments will remain united following their meeting with Vance and Rubio, with Frederiksen adding, “We come together, we stay together, and we leave together.
The White House has argued that if the U.S. does not acquire Greenland, “then it will eventually be acquired or even perhaps hostilely taken over by either China or Russia,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.
Trump administration officials have also cited national security concerns in acquiring Greenland. But last week, Trump was revealed to be weighing using the U.S. military as an option to acquire Greenland.
“It would be the end of NATO,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Other lawmakers reacted differently to the president’s ambition to have Greenland join the U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he does not expect the U.S. to take the island territory by force.
“We’ve been very clear, I mean, the Article 1 branch is clear,” Johnson told reporters Monday.
“There’s no declaration of war pending for Greenland. It’s just not a thing. I don’t anticipate any boots on the ground anywhere, anytime soon.”
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) introduced a bill in the House on Monday to have Greenland become the 51st state.
“Greenland is not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore—it is a vital national security asset,” Fine said in a statement. “Whoever controls Greenland controls key Arctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States.”
“America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security,” he added.
