The United States and Denmark offered drastically different perspectives regarding a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO conference happening in Brussels.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in Brussels on Thursday amid the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.
The Danish diplomat did not offer superficial niceties about the conversation, writing on social media that it was an “honest and direct meeting.”
“I made it crystal clear that claims and statements about annexing Greenland are not only unacceptable and disrespectful,” Rasmussen said. “They amount to a violation of international law.”
Denmark has taken an aggressive posture to defend its right to ownership of Greenland following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to integrate the island nation into the U.S.
Danish diplomats, the national government, and even the king of Denmark have taken actions to cement and reiterate their ownership of Greenland in recent weeks.
Rubio’s camp was far less abrasive in its read-out of events following the meeting with Rasmussen. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the two top diplomats “reaffirmed the strong relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Notably, Greenland was not mentioned in the post-meeting readout.
Rubio and Rasmussen “discussed shared priorities including increasing NATO defense spending and burden sharing, and addressing the threats to the Alliance, including those posed by Russia and China,” Bruce said. “They also reviewed ongoing coordination to enhance stability and security in Europe and to secure an enduring peace in Ukraine.”
Trump’s administration has taken every opportunity to reiterate its desire and expectation that Greenland, a strategically valuable island nation for Arctic security, will come under some form of control by the U.S.
Vice President JD Vance reiterated those feelings during his visit to the country last week and offered brutal honesty in his assessment of Denmark’s management of the island.
“If the people of Greenland were willing to partner with the United States, and I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States, we could make them much more secure,” Vance said. “We could do a lot more protection.”
“This has to happen,” Vance added. “The reason it has to happen — I hate to say it — is because our friends in Denmark have not done their job in keeping this area safe.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte strategically dodged a reporter’s question on the future of Greenland on Tuesday, affirming the Trump administration’s concerns about Arctic security but leaving the question of “control” unanswered.
NATO CHIEF RUTTE SIDESTEPS ON US INTEREST IN GREENLAND, HIGHLIGHTS ‘SERIOUS’ ARCTIC THREATS
“Your question has to do with this whole issue of how to defend the Arctic at the high north,” Rutte said. “This is not only Denmark through Greenland. This is also [about] Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Canada, and the United States — seven NATO allies — and the eighth country being Russia.
“So, when it comes to Greenland, yes or no, joining the U.S., I would leave that outside, for me, this discussion because I don’t want to drag NATO in that. But when it comes to the high north in the Arctic, you are totally right. We know things are changing there, and we have to be there.”
