From Washington Examiner: Danish officials arrived at the White House on Wednesday seeking reprieve from President Donald Trump‘s saber-rattling toward their territory of Greenland.
After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the leaders said they agreed to disagree about the future of the island but expressed a willingness to “continue to talk” about the administration’s security concerns in the Arctic.
“Of course, we share, to some extent, his concerns,” Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark, told reporters from the Danish Embassy following the meeting. “The big difference is whether that must lead to a situation where the U.S. must acquire Greenland, and that is absolutely not necessary.”
Rasmussen acknowledged an atmosphere of unprecedented Russian aggression, as well as recent encroachment into the Arctic sphere by China, saying there is “definitely a new security situation in the Arctic and the high north.”
He said the U.S. and Denmark share a “vision of keeping the Arctic as a low-tension region.”
“We have the longest-lasting diplomatic relation with the U.S. that any U.S. ally has — 225 years in a row. And we have perfect framework which could be used,” Rasmussen continued. “Even though [the meeting] wasn’t so successful that we reached a conclusion where our American colleagues said, ‘Sorry, it was a total misunderstanding, we give up on our ambitions’ — it was clearly a disagreement — we agreed that it makes sense to try to sit down at a high level.”
Trump addressed the situation with Greenland in his own comments on Wednesday.
“We’re going to see what happens with Greenland,” he said. “We need Greenland for national security, so we’re going to see what happens. They’re going to brief me in the meeting right after this conference. We have a very good relationship with Denmark.”
Trump insists that “if we don’t go in, Russia is going to go in, and China’s going to go in.”
“Greenland is very important for national security, including of Denmark. And the problem is there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland. But there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela. … I can’t rely on Denmark being able to defend themselves,” Trump explained. .
US President Trump has made clear he is not backing down from his bid to take control of Greenland, saying he still believed that ‘something will work out’ and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island https://t.co/DdT4uyup9K pic.twitter.com/duRPE0UDLd
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 14, 2026
Denmark and the US will form a high-level working group to talk about the future of Greenland. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen says there is a “fundamental disagreement” with the Trump administration. He speaks in Washington https://t.co/aVoLfJCnCN pic.twitter.com/4HebxjYpT3
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) January 14, 2026
“The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security… IF WE DON’T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!” – President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/uDfWla0hNU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 14, 2026
Read more at Washington Examiner
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