Tensions increased when second lady Usha Vance announced she and her 7-year-old son would visit Greenland beginning today to attend the national dogsled race. Soon after, it was revealed that other government officials, including her husband, JD Vance, would also be on the trip. Also on their agenda was a visit to a U.S. military base.
Here is an explainer about the upcoming trip and the United States relationship with Greenland.
• Who rules Greenland: Greenland is a self-governing region of Denmark, with a territory of 56,000 people.
• Past relations with the U.S.: Greenlanders have welcomed American visitors for decades.
The U.S. effectively occupied Greenland during World War II, building a string of air and naval bases. Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon’s Space Force.
• What makes Greenland valuable? Greenland has become the center of a competition between the U.S., Russia and China as global warming opens up access to the Arctic. Greenland holds large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology and straddles strategic air and sea routes.
Credit: Keith Virgo
Credit: Keith Virgo
• Who is going: Vance and his wife, Usha, and their 7-year old son. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be traveling to Greenland.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
JD Vance will join Waltz and Wright in visiting the U.S. military base in northern Greenland.
• Dogsled race: The Vances will attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race which features about 37 mushers and 444 dogs.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
• What Vance is saying: Vance said he’ll visit U.S. Space Force members based on the northwest coast “and also just check out what’s going on with the security there of Greenland.”
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said. ”Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.”
• What Trump is saying: “I think Greenland’s going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump said. “I think it’s important. It’s important from the standpoint of international security.”
“If you look at the ships outside of Greenland, you have Russia, you have China, you have lots of different people and lots of different places. It cannot go on the way it is. It’s not going to go on the way it is,” Trump said.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
• Backlash: News of the visit drew an immediate backlash from local politicians, who described it as a display of U.S. power at a time they are trying to form a government.
• Security measures: Danish national police have sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as part of regular security measures taken during visits by dignitaries.
• No official meetings: Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who remains in the post until a new government is formed, said there would be no official meetings with the U.S. visitors.
Credit: Ida Marie Odgaard
Credit: Ida Marie Odgaard
• New Greenland leadership: Greenlanders recently elected a new parliament. The likely next Greenlandic leader is Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Demokraatit.
• Greenland’s future: Part of Denmark since 1721, Greenland has been moving toward independence for decades. It’s a goal most Greenlanders support, though they differ on when and how that should happen.
Denmark recognized Greenland’s right to independence at a time of its choosing under the 2009 Greenland Self-Government Act, which was approved by local voters and ratified by the Danish parliament.