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JD Vance to
join wife on Greenland visit but scales back scope of trip amid protests –
Europe live
US
vice-president says he wants to ‘check out’ security as Denmark welcomes move
to rule out some sites after protests from Greenlandic leaders
Morning
opening: The unwelcome guest
Jakub Krupa
US
vice-president JD Vance has decided to join his wife, Usha, on a trip to
Greenland later this week, attracting even more attention to the controversial
visit criticised by both Greenlandic and Danish leaders.
In a social
media post last night, Vance said:
There was so
much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided
that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to
join her.
He said he
wanted to “check out what is going on with the security there of Greenland”
after “a lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to
use its territories and its waterways” to pose threat to the US and Canada.
But in a
potentially inflammatory part of his video, he said:
I say that
speaking for President Trump: we want to reinvigorate the security of the
people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security
of the entire world.
Unfortunately,
leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too
long.
That’s been
bad for Greenland, it’s also been bad for the security of the entire world.
We think we
can take things in a different direction, so I’m gonna go check it out.
Despite the
rhetoric, the character of the visit will also change: after protests from
Greenlandic leaders, the Vances will no longer take part in a dog-sled race or
visit historical places, but solely focus on the US military base, Pituffik
Space Base.
As Danish
broadcaster DR notes, its history goes back to 1953 when 116 Greenlanders were
forcibly removed from the area to make room for the base (they later won a
lawsuit and received some compensation for the move).
The base was
previously known as Thule Air Base, but was renamed Pituffik Space Base in
2023, after the plain on which the base is built, Pituffik.
DR also
noted that in 1968 an American military bomber B52 carrying nuclear weapons
crashed near the base.
The White
House press release highlighted the base’s importance during the cold war, and
noted:
In the
decades since, neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past U.S.
administrations have presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance
their own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly
changing course.
Responding
to the announcement, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said this
morning on P1 Morgen that it was “very positive that the Americans cancelled
their visit to the Greenlandic society.”
“Instead,
they will visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” he
said, noting with satisfaction that cars shipped to the island in the last few
days in preparations for the broader US visit are now being sent back.
The minister
argued that by limiting the visit, the US is actually de-escalating the
tension, even as it theoretically upgraded its delegation by sending the US
vice-president. The Danish press also called it “a small victory.”
But defence
minister Troels Lund Poulsen remained unconvinced about the visit, saying it
was not the right development in relations between close allies, DR reported.
The acting
government of Greenland only said diplomatically that it “notes that the
previously announced US delegation visit to Nuuk and Sisimiut has been
cancelled by the US government.”
Expect this
topic to continue to attract a lot of attention ahead of Friday, as a practical
test of what US leaders are prepared to do and say on Greenland, which remains
a Danish territory and does not appear to show much interest in becoming a part
of the US.
Elsewhere,
we will be following updates on Ukraine ahead of what appeared to amount to a
Black Sea ceasefire, as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Emmanuel Macron in
Paris this evening, ahead of another meeting of “the coalition of the willing”
tomorrow.
It’s
Wednesday, 26 March 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good
morning.
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