Denmark announced this Wednesday (14) the creation of a working group with the United States to address the “differences” between the two countries regarding the future of Greenland, following a meeting between the foreign ministers of Denmark and the island and the US vice-president, JD Vance, who did not change Washington’s position.
“We have decided to form a high-level working group to explore whether we can find common ground,” declared Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen at a press conference alongside his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt.
Rasmussen indicated that the group will meet for the first time “in a few weeks” and expects the focus to be “addressing U.S. security concerns while respecting Denmark’s red lines.”
The meeting with Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took place at the Eisenhower Executive Building, in the White House complex, amid pressure from US President Donald Trump to acquire the Arctic island, citing national security concerns.
According to the Danish Foreign Minister, the meeting was “a frank but also constructive discussion”, although he stated that positions remain divergent.
He explained that Denmark continues to believe that Greenland’s security can be guaranteed “within the current framework” and said that any idea that does not respect Denmark’s territorial integrity and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination is “totally unacceptable.”
“So we continue to have fundamental disagreements, but we also agree to disagree,” he declared. The White House has not yet commented on the meeting.
This Wednesday, before the meeting, Trump expressed on the Truth Social platform that, with Greenland “in the hands” of the United States, NATO will be much more effective and added that “anything less than that is unacceptable”.
Both Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have rejected the possibility of the United States annexing the island — an autonomous territory of Denmark — either by purchase or by military force.
