US visit puts ‘unacceptable pressure’ on Greenland: Danish PM

COPENHAGEN: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday criticised a planned US delegation visit to Greenland, a Danish territory coveted by President Donald Trump, as putting “unacceptable pressure” on both the territory and her country.

The White House has announced that Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, will visit Greenland from Thursday to Saturday to attend Greenland’s national dogsled race in Sisimiut, on the northwestern coast.

The race has been largely sponsored by the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenlandic media reported.

According to the Arctic island’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede, US national security adviser Mike Waltz will also visit Greenland this week, while US media have reported that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will travel there as well.

The visits, presented as private, have angered Danish and Greenlandic politicians.

“You can’t organise a private visit with official representatives of another country,” Frederiksen told reporters.

The visit comes at a time of political flux in Greenland, where political parties are still negotiating to form a new coalition government following a March 11 general election.

“This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,” Frederiksen told broadcaster DR.

“That’s why I have to say that the pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation is unacceptable. “And it’s pressure we will resist,” she added.

The outgoing Greenlandic government said in a post on Facebook it had not “sent out any invitations for visits, private or official”.

“The current government is a transitional government pending the formation of a new governing coalition, and we have asked all countries to respect this process,” it wrote.

Since returning to power in January, Trump has insisted he wants the United States to take over Greenland for national security purposes and has even refused to rule out the use of force to achieve that aim.

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.