Greenland and Denmark unite against US advances ahead of White House meeting
Prime Minister of Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen delivers a speech Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. Picture: AP Photo/Pascal Bastien
Greenland’sprime minister has said “we choose Denmark” before high-stakes talks at the White House as Donald Trump seeks to take control of the Arctic territory.
Amid rising tensions over the US president’s push, Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Tuesday told a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, that the island would not be owned or governed by Washington.
“We are now facing a geopolitical crisis. If we have to choose between the US and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark, Nato and the EU,” Mr Nielsen said, adding that the island’s “goal and desire is peaceful dialogue, with a focus on cooperation”. Mr Trump’s pursuit of the island was also a matter of “international law and our right to our own country”, he said.
Mr Trump first raised the idea of a US takeover of Greenland, a largely self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, in 2019, during his first term, and again in the weeks before he took office for his second term last January. But he has ramped up his rhetoric significantly this month, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”.
Mr Trump’s most recent threats have prompted a geopolitical crisis, raised significant doubt over the survival of Nato and, for many of the 57,000 Greenlandic people who have found themselves at the centre of it, sleepless nights and anxiety over their safety, identity and futures.
In Greenland’s snow-covered capital, Nuuk, the fear is palpable among residents who are faced with having to get on with their day-to-day lives while trying to grapple with potentially existential questions, amplified by a constant stream of news and updates on their phones. Meanwhile, the world’s media has descended on the small city that is geographically closer to New York than it is to Copenhagen, which continues to control Greenland’s foreign and security policy.
One shop displayed T-shirts that said: “GREENLAND IS NOT FOR SALE!” The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, are due to hold a crunch meeting in Washington on Wednesday with the US vice-president, JD Vance, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
Naaja H Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business, mineral resources, energy, justice and gender equality, said on a visit to London on Tuesday that the Greenlandic government did not know what was on the agenda for the White House meeting. Urging the US to act as allies, she said: “For others it might be a piece of land, but for us it is home.”
The meeting comes as Mr Trump has shocked the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is covered by many of the protections offered by the two organisations because Denmark belongs to both.
Ms Frederiksen said it had not been easy for Denmark to “stand up to completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally”. She said something fundamental was at stake, and there was “much evidence the most challenging part lies ahead”.
The fact was that “borders cannot be changed by force, and that small countries should not fear large countries”, she said. “That is why we are saying no. We are not looking for any conflict. But our message is clear. Greenland is not for sale.”
Ms Frederiksen has previously said a US invasion would lead to the end of Nato, and multiple European leaders have pledged their support for Greenland’s territorial integrity and right to self-determination. Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, on Tuesday said that any US move to take control of Greenland “would be a real unprecedented situation in the history of Nato, and in the history of any defence alliance in the world”.
After a meeting of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, the Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said he and Motzfeldt would meet the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in Brussels next Monday.
Mr Poulsen said Denmark planned a larger military presence alongside other Nato countries in Greenland this year, adding that Copenhagen sought “greater attention from Nato in relation to issues regarding Nato’s presence in and around the Arctic”.
Mr Trump argues the US needs to control Greenland to increase Arctic security in the face of an alleged threat from China and Russia. Mr Rutte said on Tuesday all Nato members agreed that “when it comes to the protection of the Arctic, we have to work together”.
The Nato chief declined repeatedly to comment on US demands, saying it was “not up to me to comment on discussions between allies”. He said the alliance was “working on the next steps” and was in “complete agreement on the urgency of the situation”.
But Thomas Dans, Mr Trump’s Arctic commissioner, said there could be meaningful US action taken in relation to Greenland in as little as “weeks or months”, telling USA Today that the president wants developments to move “at high speed”.
Alliance members, including France and Germany, have floated suggestions including bolstering Nato’s presence in the region or stationing troops on Greenland itself. Diplomats say talks are at a very early stage and there are no concrete plans.
In Nuuk, Pele Broberg, the leader of Naleraq, the opposition and the most US-friendly of Greenland’s political parties, told the preferable outcome of the Washington talks was to reach a deal with the US. “They want to do a deal the easy way or the hard way: who wants the hard way?” he asked.
He also questioned Løkke Rasmussen’s attendance, saying the talks had “nothing to do with Danish foreign politics, and everything to do with the Greenlandic people’s future”.
Greenland has been moving toward independence since 1979, when it won self-rule from Denmark. The goal is shared by all political parties elected to the island’s parliament, although there are differences over the best timescale.
Mr Broberg accused Copenhagen of using “Nato, and the Danish ownership of Greenland” to have a say in Greenland’s future. “It shows that they are still not ready to actually let us go,” he said.
Greenland’s government said on Monday it could not “under any circumstances accept” a US takeover and would intensify its efforts to “ensure that the defence of Greenland is carried out within the framework of Nato”.
It said it believed Greenland would remain a member of the western defence alliance “for ever” and that “all Nato member states, including the US, have a common interest” in the defence of the vast Arctic island.
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