Vice President JD Vance and second woman Usha Vance as seen on the Elysee Palace, in Paris, on Feb. 11, 2025.
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Ian Langsdon/AFP
Vice President JD Vance mentioned on Tuesday that he would be part of his spouse, second woman Usha Vance, on a visit to Greenland this week after an earlier announcement of her plans for a cultural go to to the Danish territory acquired an icy reception.
The journey comes as President Trump has continued to muse about the US annexing Greenland, a territory managed by Denmark. Greenland and Denmark have each repeatedly emphasised that Greenland just isn’t on the market.
The Vances will go to U.S. service members on the Pituffik Area Base on Friday and obtain a briefing on Arctic safety points, based on the White Home.
Vance mentioned in a video posted on social media that he needed to “simply try what is going on on with the safety there.”
“A variety of different international locations have threatened Greenland, have threatened to make use of its territories and its waterways to threaten the US, to threaten Canada, and naturally, to threaten the individuals of Greenland, so we will try how issues are going there,” Vance mentioned.
Houses in Nuuk, Greenland, as seen on March 24, 2025. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede accused Washington of interfering in its affairs after second woman Usha Vance and different U.S. officers mentioned they’d go to the Danish territory.
Juliette Pavy/AFP
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Juliette Pavy/AFP
The unique itinerary concerned a dogsled race
The renewed consideration on Greenland kicked off on Sunday. Usha Vance introduced that she and one in every of her younger sons would go to Greenland to see cultural and historic websites, and attend the nationwide dogsled race — and the White Home had mentioned that nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz would go to a U.S. army base on the island.
Usha Vance had acquired “a number of invites” to attend the dogsled race — and the top of a dogsledding affiliation had requested her to wave the flag to open the race, her communications director Nikki Reeves mentioned, citing conversations between the U.S. consulate and occasion organizers.
However different Greenlandic leaders had expressed considerations. The territory’s Prime Minister Mute Egede mentioned in a Fb put up that there could be no conferences between U.S. officers and authorities officers in Greenland through the go to.
At a cupboard assembly Monday, Trump rejected the notion that the deliberate visits have been in any manner confrontational.
“That is friendliness, not provocation. We’re coping with lots of people from Greenland that wish to see one thing occur with respect to them being correctly protected and correctly taken care of. They’re calling us. We’re not calling them,” Trump mentioned on Monday.
Vance workplace chides Denmark and previous U.S. leaders for ‘neglect and inaction’
The vice chairman’s workplace mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday that Trump is “rightly altering course” on the safety of Greenland — and criticized Denmark and former U.S. presidents for not paying extra consideration.
“The strategic partnership between the US and Greenland has lengthy performed a significant position in our nationwide and financial safety. Throughout World Warfare Two, the US established over a dozen army bases in Greenland to defend the North Atlantic from Nazi incursion. Through the Chilly Warfare, the US dedicated further assets to Greenland to defend in opposition to Soviet missile assaults,” the assertion mentioned.
“Within the a long time since, neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and previous U.S. administrations have introduced our adversaries with the chance to advance their very own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic.”
