Talks with US pose ‘conundrum’ for Greenland and Denmark: analysts

LONDON — US officials are expected to meet with their Danish and Greenlandic counterparts in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, amid President Donald Trump’s continued expressions of intent to acquire the semi-autonomous Arctic territory despite collective opposition in both Copenhagen and Nuuk.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt will lead the delegation to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

In Denmark, “this is the big national news,” Jonas Parello-Plesner, a political analyst and former Danish diplomat, told ABC News. “If in Trump’s first term the saying was, ‘You should take it seriously, but not literally,’ I think this time the saying is, ‘You should take it seriously and literally.'”

Trump first raised the possibility of acquiring the territory during his first term, when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed the idea as “absurd.” During Trump’s second term, the president has spoken more aggressively about the proposal.

“Even from a year ago, I see a pretty stark difference in the attitudes of both Greenland and Denmark that this is potentially very serious and life-changing for the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Parello-Plesner, who is now executive director of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, a Copenhagen-based nonprofit.

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, told ABC News that the furor is raising deeper questions among Danes and Greenlanders about their long-standing ties to the United States.

“Is this what the United States is now? A superpower running around, invading its little democratic allies?” asked. “It’s scary to think about it.”

“Just think about what this will mean for the American alliance system around the world,” he added. “What kind of signal does it send? If you are allied with the United States, you can be invaded when it suits the United States.”

“You need property”

Trump has repeatedly suggested that American sovereignty over the world’s largest island is necessary to ensure American security and mitigate Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region.

As part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is covered by NATO’s collective defense clause. Greenland is home to the US Pituffik space base and about 150 US troops; The United States has significantly reduced its footprint since its peak during the Cold War.

A 1951 defense agreement grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, and Danish politicians have repeatedly expressed a willingness to work with Washington to expand the U.S. and NATO presence there.

Danish officials have also sought to allay concerns about the Arctic’s alleged vulnerability. Last year, Copenhagen announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package in response to criticism from the United States that it had not adequately protected Greenland.

But Trump and his administration seem unfazed. “One way or another, we will have Greenland,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One this weekend.

“If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will and I won’t let that happen,” Trump said, before mocking Denmark’s military strength on the island.

“Basically, their defense is two dog sleds,” Trump said. “Meanwhile, we have Russian destroyers and submarines and Chinese destroyers and submarines all over the place.”

When asked if a deal could be reached to avoid further tensions, Trump said he would “love to” because “it would be easier.”

But when pressed, the president said, “I could send a lot of soldiers there right now if I wanted to. But it takes more than that. It takes property.”

Ahead of this week’s meeting, Danish and Greenlandic politicians again issued statements rejecting any suggestion of a U.S. takeover of the island, statements that were backed by other European leaders.

“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country, then everything would stop; that includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” Frederiksen said in a statement.

“Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland is a member of NATO through the Commonwealth and therefore the defense of Greenland is carried out through NATO,” the Nuuk government said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen posted a photo on social media showing a message Frederiksen sent him.

“Greenland will not be owned by the United States,” said the message, written in Greenlandic. “Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States. We want Greenland to continue to function as part of the Kingdom.”

The leaders of the five political parties holding seats in Greenland’s parliament also issued a joint statement. “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said.

Before leaving for the United States on Tuesday, Rasmussen (the Danish Foreign Minister) told reporters in Copenhagen: “Our reason for requesting the meeting that we have been granted now was to move this whole discussion, which has not become less tense since the last time we met, to a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”

Appealing to the “negotiator”

Olesen, of the Danish Institute of International Studies, said Trump’s latest comments “should worry Danish politicians.” His apparent dismissal of Copenhagen’s efforts to bolster its Arctic preparedness “means that it either hasn’t noticed” or “it doesn’t care. And either way, it’s pretty bad.”

Trump told the New York Times that he believed American ownership of Greenland “is what I think is psychologically necessary for success.” This is also “problematic” for Copenhagen, Olesen said. “How do you deal with that?” asked.

“That’s the conundrum for Danish and Greenlandic politicians,” Olesen said, “trying not to provoke Trump too much and trying to give him something.”

“It will be difficult to offer a compromise if all you want is the property,” he added.

Parello-Plesner, the former Danish diplomat, said other nations’ experiences during Trump’s second term can offer models.

Trump’s focus on Panama and perceived Chinese overreach produced a proposed deal for a U.S. company to take control of two ports owned by a Hong Kong conglomerate. The president described the agreement as “taking back the Panama Canal.”

José Raúl Mulino, president of Panama, addressed Trump’s comments about the Panama Canal in a post on

In Ukraine, kyiv eased American pressure by agreeing to a deal to share rare earth minerals as part of the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.

“There’s also a very pragmatic side to Trump: the dealmaker,” Parello-Plesner said. “I think our team needs to give him something to work with,” he added.

That could mean new commitments on U.S. military deployments in Greenland, a deal related to the territory’s untapped mineral wealth or a promise to do more to prevent autocratic states from asserting their ambitions in the Arctic, Parello-Plesner said.

It is unclear what might appeal to the American side, he continued. “We’ve seen for 30 years that the United States just wanted to reduce its presence there and only uses it for limited missile defense purposes,” he said.

As for Greenland’s supposed mineral wealth, Parello-Plesner said the U.S. government and private companies have not shown much interest due to the territory’s inhospitable climate and terrain, extraction challenges and global market forces.

A symbolic victory could be enough to relieve pressure from Trump, Olesen said.

“It will be interesting to see how far Danish and Greenlandic politicians think they can go to avoid being humiliated, to avoid handing over the Greenlandic underground to a bully,” Olesen continued.

“But of course, the stakes are high, so I wouldn’t rule it out, and I wouldn’t rule out this being something that could resolve the crisis.”

Meanwhile, both analysts said Copenhagen and Nuuk will likely focus on bolstering the image of internal unity, European solidarity, US congressional support and NATO-led Arctic security.

“Trump’s political line is not invulnerable,” Olesen said, highlighting the rejection by American voters and members of Congress, including prominent Republicans.

“At some point, Trump may decide that it’s no longer worth bothering with, and in that case, it would probably be wise to offer him some way to save face and get out of the matter,” he said.

But months of back-and-forth over Greenland have already done significant damage to transatlantic sentiment in Denmark, Parello-Plesner said, in a country that she said has long prided itself on its broad support for NATO and its close relations with Danish U.S. forces, for example, suffering a per capita casualty rate comparable to that of the United States in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

That strength of feeling, he said, “has diminished enormously.”

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor and Clark Bentson contributed to this report.