TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. Vice President JD Vance is set to meet with Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington on Wednesday as threats by the U.S. president to seize Greenland continue to cause consternation in Europe and within the NATO alliance.
The talks, to be held at the White House with Vance in attendance, were requested by Rasmussen, who had sought to meet with his U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio, saying he hoped to "clear up certain misunderstandings."
Ahead of the talks, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said: "One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States."
Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S.
Vance in March paid an uninvited — and largely unwelcome — visit to Greenland but stayed only at Pituffik, the longstanding U.S. base on the island, without meeting with any of the 57,000 local residents.
What has Trump being saying on Greenland?
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. "needs" the huge and strategically important Arctic island, which he says would otherwise be taken over by Russia or China, despite neither of those countries voicing any aim to do so.
On Friday, Trump said that he wanted mineral-rich Greenland "whether they like it or not" and "if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way."
He doubled down on those remarks on Tuesday, saying that if Nielsen did not want Greenland to be a part of the U.S., "that's going to be a big problem from him," while claiming not to "know anything" about the Greenlandic leader.
The U.S. leader has also said he thinks the U.S. has to grow, which it has not done with regard to land area since 1959, when it added Hawaii as a 50th state.
If the U.S. were to take Greenland, it would become the world's second-largest country in land mass after Russia.
Resistance to Trump's aims
Trump's stated desire to seize the Danish territory has provoked consternation not only abroad but domestically.
On Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski from Trump's own Republicans put foward a bill together with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen that would stop the U.S. administration from annexing, occupying, or otherwise controlling the territory of a NATO ally without the consent of the partner nation.
The senators warned that any attempt to seize Greenland would be in breach of the NATO treaty, undermine solidarity within the military alliance and run counter to efforts to deal with threats from Russia and China.
"NATO remains the most successful defensive alliance in history, and its credibility rests on the shared understanding that member states' sovereignty will be respected and defended by one another," the senators said.
It is, however, unclear whether the bill has any chance of passing the Senate and later the House of Representatives.
A similar bipartisan measure has also been introduced in the House of Representatives, supported by more than 20 lawmakers.
In addition, after the White House talks, a senior delegation from the U.S. Congress consisting mostly of Democrats but with one Republican, will visit Copenhagen to offer solidarity.
"President Trump's continued threats toward Greenland are unnecessary and would only weaken our NATO alliance," said Dick Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Senate Democrat.
France to open Greenland consulate
In another sign of European opposition to Trump's designs, France has said it will be opening a consulate in Greenland on February 6.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the move had been planned last year in response to the threats by the U.S. president.
He told RTL radio that the U.S. should stop blackmailing Greenland with its menaces.
"Attacking another NATO member would make no sense, it would even be contrary to the interests of the United States ... and so this blackmail must obviously stop," Barrot said.
Read: Trump Warns "Big Problem" If Greenland Chooses Denmark Over U.S.
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