COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will visit Greenland on April 2-4 for talks with the semi-autonomous territory’s new government, she said on Saturday, amid U.S. interest in taking control of the Arctic island.
“I look forward to continuing the close and trusting cooperation between Greenland and Denmark,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
During a visit to a U.S. military base in the north of Greenland on Friday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance accused Denmark – which has controlled Greenland since 1721 – of not doing a good job of keeping the island safe and suggested the United States would better protect the strategically located island.
He made his remarks hours after Greenland formed a new broad government coalition, led by Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who called Denmark its closest ally.
Frederiksen, who has said it is up to the people of Greenland to decide their own future, said on Friday that Vance’s description of Denmark was not fair.
“I have the deepest respect for how the Greenlandic people and Greenlandic politicians are handling the great pressure on Greenland,” she said in the statement on Saturday.
“It is a situation that calls for unity across political parties and across the countries in the Realm.”
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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