Denmark says talks with the U.S. ‘needed’ over Greenland

Denmark has welcomed a meeting with the U.S. next week to discuss President Donald Trump’s renewed call for Greenland to come under American control.

Denmark has welcomed a meeting with the U.S. next week to discuss President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island of Greenland to come under American control.

“This is the dialogue that is needed, as requested by the government together with the Greenlandic government,” Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said on Wednesday a meeting about Greenland would happen next week, without giving details about timing, location or participants.

“I’m not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention. I’ll be meeting with them next week, we’ll have those conversations with them then,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Greenland’s government has told Danish public broadcaster DR that Greenland will participate in the meeting between Denmark and the U.S. announced by Rubio.

“Nothing about Greenland without Greenland. Of course we will be there. We are the ones who requested the meeting,” Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt told DR.

The island of Greenland, 80 per cent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that Denmark “obviously” had not done a proper job in securing Greenland and that Trump “is willing to go as far as he has to” to defend American interests in the Arctic.